Rare merger of Three Supermassive Black Holes Detected

Recently, Indian astrophysicists from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics discovered three supermassive black holes from three galaxies merging together to form a triple active galactic nucleus, a compact region at the centre of a newly discovered galaxy whose luminosity is much higher than normal.

Background

• As they do not emit any light, black holes are difficult to detect. Their presence is inferred by their interaction with their surroundings.
• When the dust and gas from the surroundings fall onto a supermassive black hole, some of the mass is swallowed by the black hole, but some of it is converted into energy ....