New evidence points to two feeding black holes just 175 parsecs apart lurking in the early universe

A Dual Black Hole System in the Early Universe

Astronomers have identified two actively feeding supermassive black holes residing in the MG B2016+112 system, seen when the universe was only about 2 billion years old. The research team presented this remarkable discovery in a study posted to arXiv on September 25.

Redshift and Distance Measurements

Located at a redshift of 3.273, the two supermassive black holes are separated by a distance of just 175 parsecs (570 light-years). These spatial measurements make MG B2016+112 the most compact dual active galactic nucleus (AGN) ever observed at this high redshift.

Significance for Galaxy Evolution

Discovering such a closely bound pair of active supermassive black holes provides crucial data on how early galaxies collided and merged. These observations help astrophysicists test models describing how giant black holes grow and eventually coalesce in the early cosmos.