Three supermassive black holes discovered in distant galaxy J0148-4214

Astronomers have discovered three active supermassive black holes within a single distant galaxy, J0148-4214, marking the first time such a triplet has been observed. The discovery was made using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics.

The galaxy is located approximately 12.5 billion light-years away, meaning observations show the system as it existed roughly 1.2 billion years after the Big Bang. All three black holes are actively accreting matter. Two of the black holes are situated near the galaxy's center, separated by only about 620 light-years. The largest of these central objects has a mass of approximately 80 million solar masses, while the smaller central black hole has a mass of about 600,000 solar masses.

A third black hole is located on the outskirts of the galaxy, roughly 5,500 light-years from the center, with a mass of about 2 million solar masses. The findings were published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.