Overview
- A study published October 9 in The Astrophysical Journal reports a radio image, built from RadioAstron space data plus Earth-based telescopes, that separates two emission sites in OJ287 about 5 billion light-years away.
- The resolved positions match prior orbital solutions derived from decades of monitoring, providing direct observational confirmation of a binary supermassive black hole model with a roughly 12-year orbit.
- The team estimates the primary black hole at about 18 billion solar masses and the secondary at around 150 million, with both detected via their radio jets rather than event-horizon imaging.
- The image includes a candidate twisted “wagging tail” jet attributed to the secondary; the authors say continued high-resolution observations are needed to track its evolution and solidify the jet’s source, with an optimal window expected in 2032.
- Earlier optical evidence, including a rapid bright flare seen by NASA’s TESS in 2021, suggested two active components but lacked spatial resolution; space-VLBI achieved roughly 100,000-times sharper detail by extending the observing baseline halfway to the Moon.