CNN —Two telescopes have spotted the closest pair of supermassive black holes to date. Active galactic nuclei are supermassive black holes that release bright jets of material and high winds that can shape the very galaxies where they are found. Astronomers discovered these black holes dancing around one another at the center of a pair of colliding galaxies called MCG-03-34-64, which is 800 million light-years away. Astronomers serendipitously found the black holes when Hubble’s observations revealed three spikes of bright light within the glowing gas of a galaxy. Both supermassive black holes once served as the centers of their respective galaxies, but a galactic merger brought the two objects much closer together.

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Persons: Chandra, serendipitously, ”, Anna Trindade Falcão, Hubble, Falcão, “, Karl G, ” Falcão, haven’t, LISA Organizations: CNN, Hubble, Astronomers, Astrophysical, Center, Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, NASA, ESA, European Space Agency Locations: Cambridge , Massachusetts, Socorro , New Mexico