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Like two Sumo wrestlers squaring off, the closest confirmed pair of supermassive black holes have been observed in tight proximity. These are located approximately 300 light-years apart and were detected using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory. These black holes, buried deep within a pair of colliding galaxies, are fueled by infalling gas and dust, causing them to shine brightly as active galactic nuclei (AGN).

This AGN pair is the closest one detected in the local universe using multiwavelength (visible and X-ray light) observations. While several dozen "dual" black holes have been found before, their separations are typically much greater than what was discovered in the gas-rich galaxy MCG-03-34-64. Astronomers using radio telescopes have observed one pair of binary black holes in even closer proximity than in MCG-03-34-64, but without confirmation in other wavelengths.

This is 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 X-ray emission, a telltale sign that they are supermassive black holes. The black holes shine brightly because they are converting infalling matter into energy, and blaze across space as active galactic nuclei. Their separation is about 300 light-years. The third spot is a blob of bright gas. The blue streak pointing to the 5 o'clock position may be a jet fired from one of the black holes. The black hole pair is a result of a merger between two galaxies that will eventually collide.

Credit: NASA, ESA, Anna Trindade Falcão (CfA); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

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XRISM, led by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) in collaboration with NASA and with contributions from ESA (European Space Agency), launched successfully on Sept. 6, at 7:42 p.m. EDT (Sept. 7, 8:42 a.m. in Japan). The spacecraft separated from the rocket at 7:56 p.m. EDT and is on track to observe the universe’s largest structures, hottest regions, and objects with the strongest gravity.

By combining XRISM’s data with that from other NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration observatories, which all collect different types of information, we’ll unlock new insights about the universe that weren’t possible before.

In this image is the X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) spacecraft as it appeared in May at Tsukuba Space Center, Japan. The open compartment near the bottom houses its Goddard-developed Resolve instrument.

Image Credit: JAXA/NEC

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This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image reveals NGC 547, an elliptical galaxy that sits about 250 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Cetus. NGC 547 shines just below the center of this image, with its companion galaxy NGC 545 near the upper left. Collectively, the pair is known as Arp 308.

NGC 547 is a bright radio galaxy, meaning it has giant regions of radio emission extending well beyond its visible structure. The lobes of radio emission are powered by jets from the active galactic nucleus, or AGN, at its center.

Galaxies with active galactic nuclei have an extremely bright region at their cores where a supermassive black hole exists. As dust and gas fall into the black hole it emits light across the entire electromagnetic spectrum.

Radio galaxies are one of the most energetic astrophysical phenomena. Hubble observed this galaxy as part of a survey for a dataset meant to help in continuing tests of scientific theories about AGNs.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Blakeslee (NOIRLab - (AZ)), and W. Sparks (SETI Institute); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

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This new image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope shows interacting galaxies known as AM 1214-255. These galaxies contain active galactic nuclei, or AGNs. An AGN is an extraordinarily luminous central region of a galaxy. Its extreme brightness is caused by matter whirling into a supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s heart.

Hubble observed the galaxy closest to the center as part of an AGN survey, with the aim of compiling a dataset about nearby AGNs to be used as a resource for astronomers investigating AGN physics, black holes, host galaxy structure, and more.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Barth (University of California - Irvine), and J. Dalcanton (University of Washington); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

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A Futuristic Image of a Close-Up View of An Active Star-Forming Region Beyond Centaurus A Galaxy.
Scientific Artwork.

Explanation: A composite image of An active intergalactic stellar-forming region where stars in groups (clusters) are born within turbulent nurseries due to the powerful shockwaves coming from the AGN of Centaurus A Galaxy. Unlike known stellar nurseries, these are vast regions that produce protostars during unstable circumstances. This lead us to many possibilities of life/death of an uncountable stars within this region.
I drew this scientific artwork depending on ESO's colors data. X-ray zones (Waves of Jet) are shown in Blue, orange/red stars refer to 870-micron submillimeter, while the rest colors of pale dust & some stars are in visible light.

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Astronomers have used gravitational lensing to obtain an unprecedented look at a black hole system in the early Universe. An artist's illustration shows how the X-ray light from one of the objects on the left (purple) has been warped by the gravity of an intervening galaxy to produce two sources detected in the Chandra image (dashed square on the right). The light from the fainter object (blue) has been amplified by the galaxy to be as much as 300 times brighter than it would have been without the lensing. The Chandra X-ray image is also shown in the second figure. The two objects are either two growing supermassive black holes, or one black hole and a jet.

Image credit: Illustration: NASA/CXC/M. Weiss; X-ray Image (inset): NASA/CXC/SAO/D. Schwartz et al.

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At first glance, it may seem as though this image was taken through a faulty lens, but the mind-bending distortions visible in this Hubble Space Telescope image are actually caused by a cosmic phenomenon. The bright object at the center of the frame is the galaxy cluster SDSS J1336-0331. The enormous gravitational influence of the cluster warps the very shape and fabric of its environment (the space-time around it), creating an effect known as strong gravitational lensing. Through this effect, the light from background galaxies along the same line of sight is bent into fantastic arcs.

This effect is very useful for studying distant background galaxies. Moreover, SDSS J1336-0331 is interesting in itself: the cluster was part of a study of star formation within 42 of the Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs — the brightest galaxies within their host clusters, as the name would suggest). Typically located in the centers of their clusters, BCGs are among the most massive and luminous galaxies in the universe. They are generally huge elliptical galaxies and are likely to host active galactic nuclei (AGN) in their cores. The study found evidence to suggest that BCGs are fueled by cold gas from the galaxy. It also showed that star formation in older BCGs no longer significantly contributes to the galaxy’s growth; instead, the stellar growth occurs through mergers, the collision of two galaxies. Violent, gas-rich major mergers can trigger intense bursts of star formation in their aftermath.

For more information, visit: www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1829a/

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

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Even though it's only 13 million light-years distant and bright enough to be seen by amateur telescopes, the Circinus Galaxy (or ESO 97-G13) went unnoticed until the 1970s because it is located in the plane of our galaxy and hidden among the dust and gas found there. This Hubble image shows the central portion of the galaxy — no more than about one-fifth of its total size.

The galaxy is designated a type 2 Seyfert, a class of mostly spiral galaxies that have compact centers and are believed to contain massive black holes. Seyfert galaxies are themselves part of a larger class of objects called active galactic nuclei (or AGN). AGN have the ability to remove gas from the centers of their galaxies by blowing it out into space at phenomenal speeds. Astronomers have seen evidence of a powerful AGN at the center of this galaxy as well.

Hot gas, colored pink, is being ejected out of the Circinus Galaxy's central region by the massive black hole thought to reside there. Much of the galaxy’s gas, however, is concentrated in two rings. The outer ring, located about 700 light-years from the center, appears mostly red and is home to tremendous bursts of star formation. A previously unseen inner ring, visible inside the green disk, is only 130 light-years from the center.

For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/image/1010/news_release/2000-37

Credit: NASA, Andrew S. Wilson (University of Maryland); Patrick L. Shopbell (Caltech); Chris Simpson (Subaru Telescope); Thaisa Storchi-Bergmann and F. K. B. Barbosa (UFRGS, Brazil); and Martin J. Ward (University of Leicester, U.K.)

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