News Astronomy

Two colliding galaxies may have birthed this black hole

The growing giant contains the mass of 1 million suns

A galaxy that looks like an infinity symbol tilted so that one ring is on the bottom left and the other is on the upper right. In the middle of each ring is a dot. And near the galaxy's center sits a cluster of light blue, representing a supermassive black hole.

An infinity symbol–shaped galaxy (shown in this false-color image from the James Webb Space Telescope) contains an active supermassive black hole (central light blue dot). It may have been born from the collision of two galaxies.

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, P. van Dokkum/Yale University

By McKenzie Prillaman

Something unusual may have risen from the ashes of an epic smashup.