Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) identify three actively feeding supermassive black holes in the distant galaxy J0148-4214, seen as it existed about 1.2 billion years after the Big Bang. Two of the black holes lie near the galaxy’s center and are separated by roughly 620 light-years, while a third black hole is found farther from the nucleus.
The two near the center are expected to merge within a few hundred million years, contributing to rapid early black-hole growth. The third, off-nucleus, has uncertain origin: it could be a remnant of an earlier merger, displaced by a gravitational “recoil” kick, or migrating inward. Reported estimates put the black-hole masses at approximately 80 million, 0.6 million, and 2 million times the Sun’s mass. The more massive member of the central pair accretes at a lower rate than the nearby 0.6-million-solar-mass black hole, which is described as reaching or exceeding the theoretical maximum accretion rate.
Across outlets, the emphasis is consistent on the “first” nature of the multi-black-hole find in a single galaxy and on what it implies for how supermassive black holes grow early in cosmic history, including merger-driven pathways. The results are published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, with the team also estimating the galaxy’s stellar mass at about 1.3 billion solar masses.
