Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Yale Univ./P. van Dokkum et al.;
Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/JWST;
Image Processing:NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk; NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/A. Pagan
Scientists have discovered an oddly-shaped galaxy that may contain
the first newborn supermassive black hole ever spotted, as described in
our latest blog post.
If confirmed, this result implies that black holes can form remarkably
quickly, not just soon after the Big Bang but throughout cosmic time.
X-ray data from Chandra and radio data from the NSF’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) have uncovered a growing supermassive black hole in this galaxy. Such black holes are usually found in the centers of massive galaxies, but the Chandra and VLA data may show that this is not the case for the Infinity Galaxy. The VLA data suggests the supermassive black hole is located in between both galaxies in a cloud of gas. The Chandra data unambiguously reveals the presence of a growing black hole near the center of the galaxy.
X-ray data from Chandra and radio data from the NSF’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) have uncovered a growing supermassive black hole in this galaxy. Such black holes are usually found in the centers of massive galaxies, but the Chandra and VLA data may show that this is not the case for the Infinity Galaxy. The VLA data suggests the supermassive black hole is located in between both galaxies in a cloud of gas. The Chandra data unambiguously reveals the presence of a growing black hole near the center of the galaxy.
A paper that discusses the Webb, Chandra and VLA observations of the
Infinity Galaxy has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journal Letters and a preprint is here.
The author list is Pieter van Dokkum (Yale), Gabriel Brammer
(University of Copenhagen), and Josephine F.W. Baggen, Michael Keim,
Priyamvada Natarajan and Imad Pasha (all from Yale). A separate paper
led by van Dokkum with the newer Webb data is currently being reviewed
at the Astrophysical Journal Letters and the submitted version is available online.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's C.handra X-ray C.enter controls science operations from Cambridge, Mass,brachusetts, and ,brflight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's C.handra X-ray C.enter controls science operations from Cambridge, Mass,brachusetts, and ,brflight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.
Source: NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory
Visual Description:
A pair of distant galaxies that form the rough shape of an infinity
symbol seen at about a 45-degree angle. Two overlapping, fuzzy rings
with brighter blue patches are at the upper right and lower left. At the
center of each ring is a bright yellow blob, which are the nuclei of
each galaxy. These structures are seen in infrared data from the James
Webb Space Telescope. Where the two rings overlap on the left side,
there is a mottled green patch of glowing gas midway between the two
yellow nuclei. It is offset slightly to the left. A cloud of purple
passes between the two nuclei, extending over parts of each nuclei and
toward the outer edges of the galaxies in both directions.This purple
cloud shows X-rays seen with the Chandra X-ray Observatory
Fast Facts for Infinity Galaxy
Scale: Image is about 4 arcsec (110,000 light-years) across.
Category: Black Holes
Coordinates (J2000): RA 10h 00m 14.2s | Dec +02° 13´ 11.7"
Constellation: Sextans
Observation Dates: 6 observations from Dec 19, 2006 to Jan 4, 2007
Observation Time: 53 hours 58 minutes (2 days 5 hours 58 minutes)
Obs. ID: 8006 ,8007, 8012, 8013, 8497, 8503
Instrument: ACIS
References: van Dokkum, P. et al., 2025, ApJL, in press: DOI:10.48550/arXiv.2506.15618; van Dokkum, P. et al., 2025, ApJL, submitted: DOI:10.48550/arXiv.2506.15619;
Color Code: X-ray: purple; Infrared: red, green, blue
Distance Estimate: About 8.3 billion light-years (z=1.14)
