"Record-breaking: Astronomers Discover Heaviest Black Hole Pair at 28 Billion Solar Masses"

Two supermassive black holes, with a combined mass 28 billion times that of the sun, have been discovered in a fossil galaxy, locked in a gravitational dance preventing them from merging. This finding challenges the theory that supermassive black hole mergers are common, as these are the closest and heaviest black hole pair ever observed. The massive black holes have scoured their galaxy of stars and gas, stalling their collision. The discovery sheds light on the formation and behavior of supermassive black hole binaries after galactic mergers and highlights the potential impact of archival data from telescopes like Gemini North.