Chandra data of the source known as LGGS J004527.30+413254.3

This graphic shows the Chandra data (blue in inset) of the source known as LGGS J004527.30+413254.3 (J0045+41 for short) in the context of optical images of Andromeda from the Hubble Space Telescope. J0045+41 likely contains a pair of supermassive black holes in close orbit around each other, separated by only a few hundred times the distance between the Earth and the Sun. The estimated total mass of the black holes is about two hundred million times the mass of our Sun.