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Infinity Galaxy’s Newborn Black Hole Shows Evidence of Direct Collapse

Preliminary velocity data place the million-solar-mass black hole at the heart of surrounding ionized gas, suggesting it formed in place through direct collapse.

Overview

  • The Infinity Galaxy, 8.3 billion light-years away, comprises two colliding spiral galaxies whose merged structure resembles the infinity symbol.
  • Observations from JWST, W. M. Keck Observatory, the VLA and Chandra reveal a million-solar-mass black hole embedded in a dense cloud of ionized gas between the galaxy nuclei.
  • Preliminary velocity measurements align the black hole’s motion with the surrounding gas flows, as expected if it collapsed in situ rather than migrating from a galactic core.
  • These results strengthen the heavy-seed hypothesis, proposing that supermassive black holes can form directly from collapsing gas clouds instead of growing solely through stellar-remnant mergers.
  • The paper detailing these findings was accepted by The Astrophysical Journal Letters and now awaits deeper spectral analysis and further observations to confirm the direct collapse scenario.