2003/05/22 by H. Sudou, Hiroshi Sudou, S. Iguchi +5 · 5 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Active galactic nucleus #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Binary black hole #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Gravitational wave #Intermediate-mass black hole #Physics #Quasar #Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology #Radio galaxy #Spin-flip #Supermassive black hole #X-shaped radio galaxy #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1126/science.1082817
published as Science 300 (2003) 1263 · 8 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the Science
openalex publication_date 2003/05/22 · arxiv created 2003/06/05 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Supermassive black hole binaries may exist in the centers of active galactic nuclei such as quasars and radio galaxies, and mergers between galaxies may result in the formation of supermassive binaries during the course of galactic evolution. Using the very-long-baseline interferometer, we imaged the radio galaxy 3C 66B at radio frequencies and found that the unresolved radio core of 3C 66B shows well-defined elliptical motions with a period of 1.05 +/- 0.03 years, which provides a direct detection of a supermassive black hole binary.