&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "What is hiding inside Antennae galaxies? Scientists uncover evidence of a possible supermassive black hole")
Astronomers may have uncovered evidence of a previously hidden supermassive black hole inside the Antennae galaxies, one of the most studied galaxy mergers in the nearby universe. The findings, detailed in a paper posted to the arXiv preprint server on May 21, suggest that a compact source within the merging galaxy NGC 4039 could be harbouring an actively feeding black hole concealed by intense star-forming activity.
Located around 70 million light-years from Earth, the Antennae galaxies (NGC 4038 and NGC 4039) are the nearest known example of two gas-rich galaxies in the process of merging. Their name comes from the long streams of stars, gas and dust pulled out by the collision, resembling an insect's antennae.
What Are the Antennae Galaxies?
According to NASA, the merger began a few hundred million years ago and has triggered intense star formation, creating thousands of young star clusters and billions of new stars as the galaxies gradually combine into a single larger system.
A Potentially Hidden Black Hole
Galaxy mergers can channel gas towards galactic centres, feeding supermassive black holes and turning them into active galactic nuclei (AGN). However, the Antennae galaxies have so far appeared dominated by starburst activity, with little evidence that either central black hole was actively accreting material. According to Phys.org, to investigate further, a team led by Shinya Komugi of Kogakuin University in Japan used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to observe the system at 100 GHz. According to Phys.org, the researchers monitored the galaxies 52 times over roughly two and a half months, searching for changes in brightness.
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Why Source S4 Is Drawing Attention
The study focused on two compact sources near the centre of NGC 4039, known as S3 and S4. While S3 appeared unusually luminous, it showed no significant variability and may be linked to a young, massive star cluster.
S4, however, exhibited changes in brightness over just 13 days. Such rapid variability limits the emitting region to less than 13 light-days, or around 0.01 parsecs across. According to the researchers, this region is too compact to be explained by a star-forming region, supernova remnant or dust cloud. Instead, the size constraint is consistent with a supermassive black hole containing roughly 10 million times the mass of the Sun. While further observations are needed, the findings provide one of the strongest indications yet that a hidden active black hole may be lurking within the Antennae galaxies.
