New Delhi, 10 OCT 2025 – In a cosmic breakthrough, astronomers including India’s ARIES and TIFR scientists have directly imaged two black holes orbiting each other, confirming a century-old prediction about galaxy OJ287.

Key Highlights

• Using RadioAstron, an international telescope network, astronomers captured two distinct black holes in quasar OJ287 – orbiting every 12 years.
• The discovery was led by Mauri Valtonen (University of Turku) with key contributions from Alok C. Gupta and Shubham Kishore (ARIES, Nainital) and A. Gopakumar (TIFR, Mumbai).
• The smaller black hole was seen launching a high-energy jet, twisting like a “wagging tail”, confirming long-standing orbital models.
• The phenomenon was earlier predicted through light pattern analysis dating back to 19th-century observations, verified in modern studies from 2018 and 2021.
• This discovery marks a first-ever spatial resolution of two black holes in orbit, offering insight into future gravitational wave events when such black holes collide.
• Findings published in the Astrophysical Journal confirm India’s growing role in global astrophysics research under the Department of Science & Technology (DST).

Parameter	Detail / Observation	Significance
Object	Quasar OJ287	Binary black hole system
Orbit Duration	12 Years	Confirms periodic orbital motion
Brightening Event	12 Hours	Equivalent to 100 galaxies’ brightness
Observed by	RadioAstron + Ground Telescopes	Unprecedented resolution
Indian Institutions	ARIES (Nainital), TIFR (Mumbai)	Core research contributors

This first-ever visual confirmation of two black holes orbiting each other opens a new window into cosmic evolution. As they spiral closer, their eventual merger will create gravitational waves, enriching our understanding of space-time and the life cycles of galaxies.

Source : Ministry of Science & Technology , PIB