NASA pictures of two supermassive black holes photobombing the Andromeda galaxy

Nasa has captured two supermassive black holes photo bombing Milky Way's galactic neighbour, Andromeda, aka the M31 galaxy, in a new image.

Research suggests the two black holes are drawing closer and could merge into one within 350 years. The image, composed from Nasa's Chandra X-ray Observatory and a couple of ground-based telescopes, features a source of light or a system dubbed J0045+41.

Initially, this system was considered as a pair of orbiting stars located within Andromeda galaxy, which is some 2.5 million light-years away from the Earth.

However, the latest observations using Chandra, Gemini-North telescope in Hawaii and the Caltech's Palomar Transient Factory in California have suggested it might be about 2.6 million light-years away (1,000 times farther) and contains tightly bound supermassive black holes.

While Chandra narrowed down what this source might contain — whether a neutron star, distant supermassive black hole, or a pair of orbiting black holes — Gemini-North telescope and Palomar Transient Factor provided more evidence that this is actually a tightly bound pair of two supermassive black holes.

"This is the first time such strong evidence has been found for a pair of orbiting giant black holes," says study co-author Emily Levesque.

UCJ, UNILORIN.