An international team of astronomers has identified three active supermassive black holes in the galaxy G0148-4214, more than 12.5 billion light-years from Earth. Led by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, the researchers said this is the first evidence of three active black holes in one galaxy in the distant universe. The study was published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Two of the black holes are located in the galaxy’s central region, separated by about 620 light-years, while the third lies about 5,500 light-years from the centre. All three are active, drawing in material from surrounding accretion disks. The team identified them through spectral signals from fast-moving hydrogen atoms, using James Webb Space Telescope data and spectro-astrometry to distinguish the close central pair.

The largest black hole has a mass of about 80 million Suns, while the other two are about 600,000 and 2 million solar masses. Researchers estimate the central pair could merge within several hundred million years. With a redshift of 5.02, the galaxy is observed as it was about 1.2 billion years after the Big Bang.