The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has discovered the closest pair of supermassive black holes to date using their Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, according to research published on September 9.The pair of black holes, which exist 300 lightyears apart, were detected serendipitously when researchers noticed three spikes of bright light using the Hubble’s high-resolution imaging. “This view is not a common occurrence in the nearby universe, and told us there’s something else going on inside the galaxy,” Anna Trindade Falcao, lead author of the study, said.While several pairs of black holes have previously been detected, they are usually much farther apart; this duo is the closest one detected in the local universe.The third source of bright light seen by Hubble is of unknown origin, and more data is needed to understand it, according to NASA.The research said that the two supermassive black holes will continue to spiral closer together until they eventually merge, “rattling the fabric of space and time,” an event that is predicted to happen 100 million years from now. Credit: NASA via Storyful