SDSS J084905.51+111447.2
Credit X-ray: NASA/CXC/George Mason Univ./R. Pfeifle et al.; Optical: SDSS & NASA/STScI
A new study using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes provides the strongest evidence yet for a system of three supermassive black holes, as described in our latest press release.
Astronomers think these triplet collisions, while extremely rare, play a
critical role in how the biggest black holes grow over time.
The system is known as SDSS J084905.51+111447.2 (SDSS J0849+1114 for short) and is located a billion light years from Earth. In this graphic, X-rays from Chandra (purple) are shown in the pull-out in comparison with optical light from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (red, green, and blue) in the main panel.
The Chandra data revealed three X-ray sources — a tell-tale sign of
material being consumed by the black holes — at the bright centers of
each galaxy in the merger, exactly where scientists expect supermassive
black holes to reside. The separations between the black holes range
between about 10,000 and 30,000 light years. Chandra and NASA's Nuclear
Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) satellite also found evidence for
large amounts of gas and dust around one of the black holes, typical
for a merging black hole system.
SDSS J0849+1114 was first flagged as a potential system of colliding
black holes by SDSS with the help of citizen scientists across the globe
as part of the Galaxy Zoo Project.
Then infrared imaging data from NASA's WISE mission revealed that the
system was glowing intensely in the infrared during a phase in the
galaxy merger when more than one of the black holes is expected to be
feeding rapidly. To follow up on these clues, astronomers then turned to
Chandra and the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) in Arizona.
One reason it is difficult to find a triplet of supermassive black
holes is that they are likely to be shrouded in gas and dust, blocking
much of their light. The infrared images of WISE, the infrared spectra
from LBT and the X-ray images from Chandra bypass this issue, because
infrared and X-ray light pierce clouds of gas much more easily than
optical light.
The paper, led by Ryan Pfeifle of George Mason University in Fairfax,
Virginia, describing these results appears in the latest issue of The
Astrophysical Journal and a preprint is also available.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's Chandra X-ray Center controls
science and flight operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Fast Facts for SDSS J0849+1114:
Scale: The optical image is about 36 arcsec (172,000 light years) across. The inset X-ray image is about 9 arcsec (43,000 light years) across.
Category: Black Holes, Quasars & Active GalaxiesCoordinates (J2000): RA 08h 49m 05.51s | Dec 11° 14´ 47.2"
Constellation: Cancer
Observation Date: March 3, 2016
Observation Time: 5 hours 48 minutes
Obs. ID: 18196
Instrument: ACIS
References: Pfeifle R. et. al, 2019, ApJ, accepted. arXiv:1908.01732
Color Code: X-ray: Blue/Purple; Optical: Red/Green/Blue
Distance Estimate: About 1 Billion light years (z=0.077)
Source: NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory
