Three active supermassive black holes found in galaxy J0148-4214

An international team led by MPE discovered three actively accreting supermassive black holes in galaxy J0148-4214 at redshift z=5.02, seen 1.2 billion years after the Big Bang. Two sit just 620 light-years apart and will merge within a few hundred million years; the third lies about 5,500 light-years from the center.

• Redshift z=5.02 puts the galaxy about 12.5 billion light-years away
• Black hole masses are roughly 80 million, 600,000 and 2 million suns
• The two central black holes are 620 light-years apart and will merge
• The galaxy's total stellar mass is estimated at 1.3 billion suns