Catenaa, Thursday, October 16, 2025- For the first time, astronomers have captured a direct image of two supermassive black holes orbiting one another within quasar OJ287, revealing a rare cosmic pairing. The discovery sheds light on the dynamics of binary black holes and their powerful jets.
The team, led by Mauri Valtonen from the University of Turku, Finland, detected the black holes through the dual particle jets they emit.
While black holes themselves are invisible, their influence on surrounding matter and radiation allows scientists to pinpoint their presence.
OJ287’s peculiar brightness variations, observed over 136 years, suggested a smaller black hole completes an orbit around a massive 18-billion-solar-mass companion every 12 years. The smaller black hole is estimated at 150 million solar masses.
The image was obtained using a radio telescope array that included the RadioAstron satellite, whose antenna extended halfway to the moon, enhancing resolution.
This setup allowed scientists to separate the jets from each black hole, confirming the long-held hypothesis of a binary system. Observations are consistent with previous radio data and a dramatic optical flare detected in 2021.
OJ287 remains visible to amateur astronomers due to its extreme luminosity, making it one of the few quasars where such a massive binary system can be observed.
The findings provide a unique laboratory to study gravitational interactions, jet formation, and the evolution of supermassive black hole binaries, which are expected to be significant sources of gravitational waves.
The study appears in the latest issue of The Astrophysical Journal, marking a milestone in observational astrophysics and deepening understanding of complex black hole dynamics in the universe.
