Astronomers spot rare ‘Infinity’ galaxy and possible birth of a supermassive black hole

An image of the Infinity Galaxy as seen by the James Webb Space Telescope (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, P. van Dokkum (Yale University).)

In a groundbreaking discovery, astronomers led by Yale University’s Pieter van Dokkum have identified a remarkable celestial formation dubbed the "Infinity" galaxy — the result of two recently collided galaxies forming a shape strikingly similar to the infinity symbol. Even more astonishing, at its core lies what scientists believe may be a newly formed supermassive black hole, a phenomenon never before observed.

The findings, set to be published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, offer a rare glimpse into the early moments of black hole creation and may reshape our understanding of how these cosmic giants emerge.

“This is as close to a smoking gun as we’re likely ever going to get,” said van Dokkum, a professor of astronomy and physics at Yale. “Everything about this galaxy is strange — especially the location of the black hole.”

Unlike most known black holes, which typically reside at the centers of galaxies, this one is found embedded in gas between the two galactic nuclei — a location that puzzled the research team.

The discovery was made while van Dokkum and fellow astronomer Gabriel Brammer of the University of Copenhagen were analyzing data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) via the COSMOS-Web survey. The team supplemented their findings with data from the W.M. Keck Observatory, Chandra X-ray Observatory, and Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescopes.

The team believes this discovery may provide the first observational evidence of a supermassive black hole forming from the collapse of dense gas, rather than from the gradual merging of smaller black holes — a theory known as the “heavy seeds” model. This contrasts with the more traditional “light seeds” theory, which proposes that black holes originate from dying stars and grow over time through mergers — a timeline now considered too slow to explain how some black holes appeared so early in the universe’s history.

“In this system, two galaxies collided, compressing their gas into dense knots,” van Dokkum explained. “One of these knots may have collapsed directly into a black hole — just as the heavy seeds model predicts.”

The implications of this discovery are significant. If validated, it could confirm that supermassive black holes can emerge directly from dense gas clouds, particularly under extreme cosmic conditions like those present shortly after the Big Bang.

Van Dokkum and his team, which includes Yale astrophysicist Priyamvada Natarajan — a major proponent of the heavy seeds theory — say that further observations are needed to confirm their results. Still, they are optimistic that this “Infinity” galaxy could become a pivotal case study in black hole research.

“This might be our first look at how the universe forged its most massive black holes,” van Dokkum said.