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A Pair of Merging Black Holes (Artist’s Concept)

Artist's depiction of a pair of active black holes at the heart of two merging galaxies. One distant black hole is at upper left, and a foreground black hole is at lower right. The black holes are both surrounded by a yellow-orange accretion disk of hot gas. Some of the material is ejected along the spin axis of each black hole and resembles two pencil-thin blue jets, like a spindle through a record. The disk at lower right fills the corner of the image and is tilted to the left, with the jet pointing in the 11 o'clock direction. The disk at upper left is much smaller and tilted to the right, with the jet aimed at the 1 o'clock position. The background is filled with thousands of white stars and red clouds of gas and dust.

This is an artist's depiction of a pair of active black holes at the heart of two merging galaxies. They are both surrounded by an accretion disk of hot gas. Some of the material is ejected along the spin axis of each black hole. Confined by powerful magnetic fields, the jets blaze across space at nearly the speed of light as devastating beams of energy.

 

  • Release Date
    September 9, 2024
  • Science Release
    NASA’s Hubble, Chandra Find Supermassive Black Hole Duo
    Read the release
  • Credit
    NASA, ESA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)

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Related Images & Videos

A Hubble Space Telescope visible-light image of the galaxy MCG-03-34-064 that appears as an orange spiral. It has a blue center (expanded in an inset image at upper right) with three bright spots embedded in a white ellipse at the galaxy's center. Two of these bright spots are the source of strong X-ray emission, a telltale sign that they are supermassive black holes converting matter to energy.

Black Hole Pair Embedded in Middle of Active Galaxy MCG-03-34-064

A Hubble Space Telescope visible-light image of the galaxy MCG-03-34-064. Hubble's sharp view reveals three distinct bright spots embedded in a white ellipse at the galaxy's center (expanded in an inset image at upper right). Two of these bright spots are the source of strong...

Image titled "MCG-03-34-064, HST ACS" with color key, scale bar, and compass arrows. A Hubble Space Telescope visible-light image of the galaxy MCG-03-34-064 appears as an orange spiral. It has a blue center (expanded in an inset image at upper right) with three bright spots embedded in a white ellipse at the galaxy's center. Two of these bright spots are the source of strong X-ray emission, a telltale sign that they are supermassive black holes converting matter to energy. Below the image title (at upper left) is a color key showing ACS filters "FR505N" in blue and "F814W I" in red. At bottom left, the scale bar is labeled "11,000 light-years over 10 arcsec." At bottom right are compass arrows indicating the orientation of the image on the sky. The north arrow points in the 12 o'clock position. The east arrow points in the 9 o'clock position.

MCG-03-34-064 Compass Image

Image titled "MCG-03-34-064, HST ACS" with color key, scale bar, and compass arrows. A Hubble Space Telescope visible-light image of the galaxy MCG-03-34-064. Hubble's sharp view reveals three distinct bright spots embedded in a white ellipse at the galaxy's center (expanded in...

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Last Updated
Mar 28, 2025
Contact
Media

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

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