A rare triple-merger galaxy, known as J121/1219+1035, hosts three actively feeding radio-bright supermassive black holes, as revealed by a team of American astronomers.
Artist’s impression of J121/1219+1035, a rare trio of merging galaxies, featuring three radioactively bright supermassive black holes actively feeding, with jets illuminating the surrounding gas. Image credit: NSF/AUI/NRAO/P. Vosteen.
The J1218/1219+1035 system is located approximately 1.2 billion light-years from Earth.
This unique galaxy system contains three interacting galaxies, each harboring supermassive black holes at their centers that are actively accreting material and shining brightly in radio frequencies.
Dr. Emma Schwartzman, a research scientist at the US Naval Research Laboratory, states: “Triple active galaxies like J1218/1219+1035 are incredibly rare, and observing them during a merger allows us a front-row seat to the growth of supermassive galaxies and their black holes.”
“Our observations confirmed that all three black holes in J1218/1219+1035 are emitting bright radiation and actively firing jets. This supports the theory of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and provides insight into the life cycle of supermassive black holes.”
Schwartzman and colleagues utilized NSF’s Very Large Array (VLA) and Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) to study J1218/1219+1035.
The findings confirmed that each galaxy hosts a compact synchrotron-emitting radio core, indicating that all three harbor AGNs powered by growing black holes.
This discovery makes J1218/1219+1035 the first confirmed triple radio AGN and only the third known triple AGN system in nearby space.
“The three galaxies within J1218/1219+1035, located about 22,000 to 97,000 light-years apart, are in the process of merging, resulting in a dynamically connected group with tidal signatures indicative of their interactions,” the astronomers noted.
“Such triple systems are crucial in the context of hierarchical galactic evolution, wherein large galaxies like the Milky Way grow through successive collisions and mergers with smaller galaxies, yet they are seldom observed.”
“By capturing three actively feeding black holes within the same merging group, our new observations create an excellent laboratory for testing how galactic encounters funnel gas into centers and stimulate black hole growth.”
J1218/1219+1035 was initially flagged as an anomalous system through mid-infrared data from NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Surveyor (WISE), which suggested the presence of at least two obscured AGNs within the interacting galaxies.
Optical spectroscopy confirmed one AGN in a core while revealing complex signatures in another, although the nature of the third galaxy remained uncertain due to the possibility of emissions from star formation.
“Only through new ultra-sharp radio imaging with VLA at frequencies of 3, 10, and 15 GHz did we uncover compact radio cores aligned with all three optical galaxies, confirming that each hosts an AGN bright in radio emissions and likely fueling small-scale jets and outflows,” the researchers explained.
“The radio spectra of the three cores exhibited traits consistent with non-thermal synchrotron radiation from the AGNs, featuring two sources with typical steep spectra and a third with an even steeper spectrum potentially indicative of unresolved jet activity.”
The galactic center excess refers to an unexpected intensity of gamma rays emerging from the core of the Milky Way galaxy.
This view displays the entire sky at energies exceeding 1 GeV, derived from five years of data from the LAT instrument on NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The most striking aspect is a luminous band of diffuse light along the center of the map, indicating the central plane of the Milky Way galaxy. Image credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT collaboration.
Gamma rays are a form of electromagnetic radiation characterized by the shortest wavelengths and the highest energy.
The intriguing gamma-ray signal from the Milky Way’s center was initially observed in 2009 by the Large Area Telescope, the primary instrument of NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.
The source of this signal remains under discussion, with main hypotheses involving self-annihilating dark matter and undetected populations of millisecond pulsars.
“When Fermi directed its gaze toward the galaxy’s center, the outcome was unexpected,” remarked Dr. Noam Libeskind, an astrophysicist at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics in Potsdam.
“The telescope detected an excessive number of gamma rays, the most energetic form of light in the universe.”
“Astronomers worldwide were baffled, and numerous competing theories emerged to clarify the so-called gamma-ray excess.”
“After extensive discussion, two primary theories surfaced: either these gamma rays stem from millisecond pulsars (highly dense neutron stars rotating thousands of times per second) or from dark matter particles colliding and annihilating. Both theories, however, have their limitations.”
“Nonetheless, our findings strongly support the notion that the gamma-ray excess arises from dark matter annihilation.”
In their study, Dr. Libeskind and his team simulated the formation of the Milky Way galaxy under conditions akin to those in Earth’s neighboring universe.
They discovered that dark matter does not radiate outward from the galaxy’s core but is organized similarly to stars, suggesting that it could also contribute to the excess gamma rays.
“The Milky Way has long been recognized as existing within a spherical region filled with dark matter, often referred to as a dark matter halo,” explained Dr. Mourits Mikkel Mur, an astrophysicist at the Potsdam Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics and the University of Tartu.
“However, the degree to which this halo is aspheric or ellipsoidal remains unclear.”
“We analyzed simulations of the Milky Way and its dark matter halo and found that the flattening of this region sufficiently accounts for the gamma-ray excess due to self-annihilation of dark matter particles.”
“These calculations indicate that the search for dark matter particles capable of self-annihilation should be emphasized, bringing us closer to uncovering the enigmatic properties of these particles.”
A study of the survey results was published in this month’s edition of Physical Review Letters.
_____
Mikel Mur the Moor et al. 2025. Excess forms of dark matter in Fermi LAT galactic center Milky Way simulations. Physics. Pastore Rhett 135, 161005; doi: 10.1103/g9qz-h8wd
A multitude of objects inhabit space, from tiny dust grains to enormous black holes. However, the focus of astronomers is primarily on these objects’ formations, held together by gravity. At the smaller scale are planets and their moons; planetary system. Then there are stars and their respective planets, forming a planetary system. Beyond that, we encounter stars, black holes, along with gas and dust in between, referred to as a galaxy. On a grander scale, the assembly of very large objects that creates larger patterns throughout the universe is termed structure. An example of such a structure is a galaxy cluster, composed of hundreds to thousands of galaxies.
Astronomers are keen to understand the influence that being part of a larger structure, such as a galaxy cluster, has on its individual objects, especially as these structures evolve over time. One research team investigated what transpires when a galaxy encounters the Abel 496 cluster, which harbors a mass approximately 400 trillion times that of the Sun and is relatively nearby, at about 140 megaparsecs or approximately 455 million light-years away from Earth.
Their goal was to study how the galaxy evolved after joining the cluster. They observed 22 galaxies within Abel 496 to identify any differences in star formation rates post-infall. Specifically, they aimed to pinpoint the last billion years, focusing on when the cluster’s regular star-forming galaxies ceased creating new stars.
The research team merged two distinct types of data regarding light emissions from the observed galaxies. The first is the long-wavelength emissions from neutral hydrogen atoms present in the interstellar dust; H I, pronounced “H One”. Analyzing these emissions helps determine how much the galaxy is being influenced by its neighboring galaxies and how much gas remains for star formation. These H I emissions were observed using the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Very Large Array.
The second dataset comprised short-wavelength emissions from recently formed stars, which have a mass between two to five times that of the Sun. These stars are short-lived, averaging a lifespan of less than 1 billion years. Researchers utilized luminosity patterns from these ultraviolet measurements to calculate the star formation frequency within the galaxies. These observations were conducted using the Ultra Violet Imaging Telescope aboard the AstroSat Satellite.
By combining this data, the team could delineate the history of each galaxy, assessing how long star-forming gas reserves persist and when star formation starts being influenced by the presence of other galaxies. The spatial positioning of each galaxy within the cluster was also examined to understand how the process of falling into the cluster altered their evolutionary trajectories.
The researchers found that galaxies located at the cluster’s edge experience star formation rates perceived as undisturbed, consistent with the Main Sequence. Additionally, it was noted that over half of the 22 galaxies under study reside at the center of the cluster, closely bound by gravitational forces and subject to secondary effects. Nevertheless, none of these central galaxies have fallen into the cluster for the past hundreds of millions of years, implying that they have not yet reached the region closest to the actual center of the cluster.
The team developed a five-stage evolutionary model for galaxies falling into clusters. Initially, galaxies begin their descent into clusters and continue their standard main sequence star formation, termed pre-trigger. In the second stage, other galaxies within the cluster disrupt the neutral hydrogen of the falling galaxies, triggering increased star formation.
The third stage sees a significant disturbance of the galaxy’s neutral hydrogen, escalating star formation to peak levels, designated as star formation peak. Next, during the fourth stage, the emissions of newly formed stars decline, though the galaxies are still quite disturbed, referred to as star-forming fading. The researchers estimate that these first four stages could span hundreds of millions of years. In the fifth stage, the depletion of neutral hydrogen leads star formation rates to fall below the pre-trigger main sequence, termed extinction.
In conclusion, the researchers asserted that their methodology successfully reconstructed the evolutionary history of galaxy clusters. However, they encouraged future teams to develop accurate measurement methods for both star formation and neutral gas within distant galaxies. They recommended utilizing larger samples of galaxies within clusters for more robust statistical analyses and investigating multiple clusters across various local environments to gain deeper insights into how galaxies evolve within vast structures.
a
About 10 minutes into the latest preview build of Ubisoft’s upcoming open-world adventure Star Wars Outlaws, protagonist Kay Vess enters Milogana, a densely populated, dilapidated city on the desolate moon of Tshara. It’s surrounded by a mix of sandstone shacks and metallic sci-fi buildings, packed with flickering computer panels, neon signs, and holographic advertisements. Exotic aliens lurk in quiet corners, and an R2 droid passes by, muttering to itself. Nearby, a cantina features a suspicious patron peeking out from a smoky doorway, and a darkened gambling hall stands nearby.
As you explore, a robotic voice reads Imperial propaganda over a loudspeaker, and stormtroopers patrol the city checking IDs. To this lifelong Star Wars fan, at least, these scenes perfectly capture the aesthetic and atmosphere of the original trilogy. Like A New Hope itself, this is a promising beginning.
“We did our homework,” says voiceover director Navid Cavalli. “We looked to the original films as well as George Lucas’s own inspirations: Akira Kurosawa, World War II films like The Dam Busters, and spaghetti westerns. Great care was taken to maintain tonal consistency in the original trilogy. We needed this to feel like it had high stakes, light-hearted humor, emotional tension, character development and a hero’s journey.”
Outlaws, due to launch on August 30th, has been in development at Massive Entertainment for about five years. In 2018, the studio held an event to announce The Division 2, and at some point that night, then-CEO David Polfeldt stepped outside to talk quietly with a senior Disney official. Over cocktails, the two discussed a possible collaboration. “The first presentation was in February 2020, after we released The Division 2,” says creative director Julian Gerighty. “We had a small team of people – concept artists and game designers – and we went to San Francisco with a very short pitch deck based on three concepts: Star Wars, an open world, and a baddie story.”
Set in the years between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, The Outlaws follows ambitious city thief Kay as he rallies a crew to pull off the biggest heist of his life in order to pay off the huge bounty on his head. [the appeal of Star Wars] “He wasn’t a Jedi farm boy or a cranky old space wizard,” says Gerrity, “he was a cool guy surfing the galaxy with his best friend and the most iconic spaceship. I really focused on these archetypal characters and what they could do in terms of gameplay.”
In Outlaws, players are free to explore and roam at least five major worlds, from Tatooine to stormy Akiva to glitzy Kantonica, home to the casino city of Kanto Bight featured in The Last Jedi. Throughout Cay’s journey, she encounters crime organizations from across the Star Wars canon, including the brutal Pikes, the Hutts, the shady Crimson Dawn, and the samurai-esque Asiga. Completing missions for organizations earns credits and reputation points, unlocking more lucrative jobs and new areas of the map. Joining one gang means alienating another, but there’s an opportunity to set crime bosses at odds or even betray one another.
So perhaps the emphasis on space villains tempted the team to make a Han Solo game? Gerrity shakes his head. “We always wanted a character that wasn’t Han Solo,” he says. “Han is the coolest guy in the galaxy. Cay is a city thief who gets caught up in a bad deal and gets catapulted from place to place like a pinball, and suddenly he’s negotiating with Jabba the Hutt… We did a lot of casting, but Hanberly Gonzalez’s character was the final piece of the puzzle. Her voice, her acting, her approach to the character on the page was such a huge influence.”
The focus on gangster intrigue is what inspired the game to be situated within the Star Wars timeline, an idea that came from Lucasfilm. “We were looking for the right moment to define the gameplay and to be able to go to cool, interesting places and meet interesting characters,” says Steve Blank, director of franchise content and strategy at Lucasfilm. “So we found a place that had a lot of opportunity to tell an underworld story. Organized crime is rampant as the Empire turns its attention to the Rebel Alliance. Jabba the Hutt is at the height of his power.”
At a press event in Los Angeles earlier this month, I played the story’s main quest, set on Tshara, where Kay must steal top-secret information from a computer in the sprawling mansion of Pyke crime lord Gorak. It’s a large, multi-floor environment riddled with guards. You can either charge straight in with blaster fire, or hack doors as you work your way through a network of ventilation ducts, backrooms, and sneaky passageways. I also visited Kimiji, an ice planet ruled by the Ashigas, a blind swordsman-like alien race. My mission is to meet with a safecracker, but I’m being pursued by an assassin. It’s an atmospheric place to explore, with temple-like towers towering above frozen cobblestone streets, snow flurries in the sky, and a small group of shady thugs huddling around a pale orange noodle shop.
A restaurant with delicious noodles…Star Wars Outlaws. Photo: Ubisoft
Although this is a Massive Entertainment game, it feels unmistakably Ubisoft. The stealth, the combat, the balance between story and side quests all contain elements borrowed from Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Watch Dogs. You watch enemy patrols, take down targets one by one using a variety of special abilities, and then escape. There are further borrowings from other action-adventures, such as Kay’s ability to slow down time to target multiple enemies before firing multiple volleys with a blaster, a clear homage to Max Payne and Red Dead Redemption.
It’s fun to think about exactly how to use all the toys available to you in such a large, densely designed location. But the big question is: what’s new and what’s different? Apart from the Star Wars license, there are three elements that distinguish Outlaws from other Ubisoft adventures. First, there’s Nix, Kay’s constant companion. This is a cute little creature that follows you everywhere and gives you access to parts of the environment that you can’t. You can also command him to attack or distract guards, or pick up items or dropped ammo. This is especially useful during gunfights. “Nix was inspired by our pet,” says Navid Khavari. “My wife and I don’t know how we would have survived COVID without cats, so I think it feels very natural. He acts like a dog.
Outlaws also does away with Ubisoft’s typical skill trees and points in favor of a more natural alternative: Expert Missions have you quest for powerful specialists, granting you new abilities and upgrading your weapons and speeder bikes.
A masterpiece… “Star Wars Outlaws.” Photo: Ubisoft
And then, of course, there’s space travel; you can hop off-planet at any time, and the transition happens in one seamless sequence. You’re then free to fly around your current system, fighting TIE fighters or scavenging space debris before making a hyperspace jump to a new planet. Flying is simple, and dogfights rely heavily on the lock-on feature to automatically track down your enemies. It’s a lot more arcadey than the great X-Wing and Tie-Fighter games of yore. Still, it’s a unique thrill to get an enemy ship in your sights and blast it to smithereens accompanied by the legendary Ben Burtt-esque sound effects.
I’ve only seen a few hours of the game so far, but there’s still so much to discover. I’m hoping that the missions and side quests will delve deeper into Star Wars lore and move further away from the typical Assassin’s Creed or Far Cry fare. I’m curious to see how populated and detailed the planets are away from the major hubs. I’d love to encounter Jawa transports, secret Imperial bases, and terrifying monsters that will spend a thousand years trying to devour me. This element of stumble-through discovery in the Star Wars universe is something the team has clearly thought about.
“We knew we needed to allow the player freedom, which is very much part of how Star Wars works,” says Cavalli. “We created a tonal blueprint that drew from both The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and blended that with all of the characters and vendors in the story so that they all felt like they were part of the same journey. It took us a while to realize this, but Star Wars is particularly well-suited for an open-world game, which is why fans, myself included, have been clamoring for it for so long.”
A dark matter halo (yellow) forms around the galaxy
Ralph Koehler/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
When you think of the Milky Way, “delicate” may not be the first word that comes to mind.But when Mariangela Lisanti She started tinkering with the Our Galaxy recipe, but found it surprisingly fragile.
Lisanti, a particle physicist at Princeton University, wonders what would happen if dark matter, a mysterious substance thought to make up more than 80 percent of all matter in the universe, was more exotic than researchers usually assume. I was simulating something. She replaced a small portion of standard dark matter with something more complex. “We thought we could just add 5% and everything would be fine,” she says. “And we destroyed the galaxy.”
There are good reasons for such interference. Since the 1980s, astronomical signs have shown that dark matter is a single type of slow-moving particle that does not interact with itself. Particle physicists have spent a great deal of effort searching for that particle. But decades later, it remains a no-show. Perhaps because dark matter is not what we tend to imagine.
Recently, a series of galactic anomalies have sparked a scramble to find alternatives. This “complex” dark matter can be as simple as subatomic particles bouncing off each other, or as complex as dark particles forming dark atoms, stars, and even galaxies. There are a number of mind-boggling possibilities.
But now observations of anomalies in our galaxy promise to finally help narrow down the options. and…
It has been close to two years since the world was first introduced to Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the supermassive black hole residing at the center of the Milky Way.
A true behemoth, Sgr A* boasts a mass equivalent to 4 million suns and is encircled by hot pockets of swirling gas. Despite its immense size, it sits about 27,000 light-years away from Earth, appearing in the sky only as large as a donut on the moon’s surface.
In a recent study published in the Astrophysics Journal Letter and released by the event horizon telescope (EHT), Sgr A* was captured in polarized light for the first time.
Similar to how sunglasses can filter polarized light from the sun, astronomers utilize polarized light to unveil concealed magnetic fields.
The lines within the image indicate the direction of polarization, which correlates with the structure of the magnetic field surrounding the black hole.
“The spiral pattern observed swirling around the black hole signifies that the magnetic field must also be swirling, indicating a very strong and ordered field,” stated Dr. Sarah Isaun, an Einstein Fellow and co-leader of the project in the NASA Hubble Fellowship Program, as quoted in BBC Science Focus.
A comparison between the supermassive black holes M87* and Sagittarius A*, depicted in polarized light, reveals similar magnetic field structures, suggesting a universal feature among supermassive black holes. – Image credit: EHT Collaboration
The first-ever image of a black hole was unveiled by EHT in 2019, featuring a much grander black hole at the core of the Messier 87 galaxy (M87*).
M87* is approximately 1,000 times heavier than Sgr A*, leading to a slower rotation making it easier to image.
Further developments include astronomers releasing images of the magnetic field encompassing M87* in 2021. Overcoming the challenge of capturing our own supermassive black hole in polarized light took an additional three years.
In a surprising revelation, despite the contrasting sizes of the two black holes, the new images demonstrate strikingly similar magnetic field structures, emphasizing the prevalence of strong magnetic fields in both. This highlights a fundamental feature of supermassive black holes.
Isaun emphasized, “Sgr A* now holds a polarization structure remarkably akin to the larger, more potent M87* black hole, supporting the significance of a robust, well-ordered magnetic field in these entities.”
A comparison of the sizes of two black holes imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration: M87* at the core of the galaxy Messier 87 and Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) at the center of the Milky Way. – Image credit: EHT Collaboration (Acknowledgment: Lia Medeiros, xkcd)
Previous investigations on M87* disclosed that the encircling magnetic field generates potent jets of energy and matter extending far beyond the galaxy. While astronomers have visualized the jet around M87*, it has remained elusive around Sgr A*. However, recent images unveil remarkable similarities between the two black holes, suggesting the potential existence of jets in both.
Isaun highlighted, “The jets within the host galaxy can stimulate or counteract star formation, exhibiting a fascinating interplay between the dynamics of these emanating jets from these black holes and the evolvement of the host galaxy. There exists a connection.”
“I believe we can extract valuable insights into our galaxy’s history from this connection.”
Upon the release of this image in 2022 by the EHT collaboration, it served as the premier visual evidence of a supermassive black hole residing at the heart of our galaxy, Sagittarius A*. – Image credit: EHT Collaboration
The upgraded EHT is set to observe Sgr A* once more next month, with astronomers hopeful of uncovering concealed jets and other facets of the galaxy’s central region.
Anticipate further groundbreaking revelations from EHT, potentially including more awe-inspiring images and even real-time video footage in years to come.
About our experts
Sarah Isaun is an observational astronomer and member of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration. Her research focuses on aggregating, calibrating, and visualizing millimeter-wave radio observations of supermassive black holes. She led a project to produce new images of Sagittarius A* in polarized light.
Princeton researchers have found that the M87* black hole emits energy outward, contributing to the formation of a giant jet. This discovery challenges traditional views about black holes and may be further tested with advanced telescopes. This new understanding opens up new avenues in comprehending black hole dynamics, though the source of the jet’s power is not definitively explained. This research was conducted with the support of the Princeton Gravity Initiative, a Taplin Fellowship, the National Science Foundation (grant 2307888), and a Simons Foundation Investigator Award.
The findings were published in the Astrophysical Journal on November 14, 2023. The research was spearheaded by Princeton astrophysicists including Andrew Chael, Alexandru Lupsasca, George N. Wong, and Eliot Quataert. With origins in Einstein’s theory of relativity, the researchers made intricate observations involving the black hole and its magnetic field to decipher the direction of energy flow. The researchers found that energy near the event horizon of black hole M87* is pushing outward rather than inward. They also verified the prediction that black holes lose rotational energy.
The researchers have concluded that while it is very likely that the black hole is powering the jet, it cannot be proven conclusively. Furthermore, the team has not conclusively shown that the black hole’s rotation “really powers the extragalactic jet.” Though the energy levels shown in their model were consistent with what a jet would require, they could not rule out the possibility that the jet could be powered by spinning plasma outside the black hole. Nevertheless, it is expected that the next generationEvent Horizon Telescope will further explore and confirm these findings.
The research team was also awarded the 2024 New Horizons Prize in Physics from the Breakthrough Prize Foundation for their black hole research. The research was also supported by a Taplin Fellowship, the National Science Foundation, a Simons Foundation Investigator Award as well as by the Princeton Gravity Initiative.
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
