New Discoveries in Supermassive Black Hole Research.

Astronomers have directly observed the second supermassive black hole in the binary system of OJ287, confirming the binary system hypothesis. The black holes are so close together that they merge into one dot, but the fact that it consists of two black holes becomes apparent by detecting two different types of signals. The secondary black hole was observed plunging through the accretion disk for the first time, producing a blue flash and new types of flares. These findings make OJ287 a prime candidate for further study of gravitational waves.