SciTechDaily
By Max Planck Institute
June 3, 2026
Researchers discovered a closely orbiting pair of supermassive black holes in Markarian 501 by tracking two jets of particles. The binary system could merge within 100 years and may produce detectable gravitational waves.
Current evidence indicates that nearly every large galaxy contains a supermassive black hole at its center, with a mass ranging from millions to billions of times that of the Sun. Exactly how these objects grow so large remains a major unanswered question. Accumulating (accreting) gas from their surroundings alone would be too slow, suggesting that mergers with other massive black holes play a crucial role in their growth.
Super Sleuth
