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Treble Clef in space: NASA’s Chandra finds a black hole outburst and cluster crash behind the shape

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Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have explained the Treble Clef, a giant radio glow shaped like the musical symbol, NASA said on 14 October 2026. They found it was likely made by an outburst from a supermassive black hole followed by a collision between two galaxy clusters.

Treble Clef: Composite image of the Treble Clef radio source and its galaxy clusters
Composite image of the Treble Clef radio source and its galaxy clusters Photo: X-ray: NASA/CXC/INAF-IRA/A. Botteon et al.; Infrared: UKIDSS-GPS; Radio: ASTRON/LOFAR; Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk (editorial use with credit).

Why the Treble Clef stayed hidden

The Treble Clef lies almost directly behind the plane of the Milky Way, so stars, gas and dust block most of the view from Earth. Chandra and the German eROSITA telescope picked up hot, diffuse gas at the spot, showing that a galaxy cluster hosts the object. Further study showed it is actually two clusters in the middle of merging. Galaxy clusters are among the largest structures in the universe, holding hundreds of galaxies and huge reservoirs of superheated gas.

Key Facts

  • Object: radio source nicknamed the Treble Clef
  • Cause: black hole outburst, then cluster merger
  • Telescopes: Chandra, eROSITA, LOFAR, UKIRT
  • Lead author: Andrea Botteon, INAF
  • Journal: Astronomy and Astrophysics

A supermassive black hole, then a crash

The team, led by Andrea Botteon of Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), described a two-stage process in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. First, the black hole blasted out charged particles and magnetic fields at nearly light speed, which glowed in radio waves and then faded. Later, the two clusters collided a few hundred million years ago and re-energised the cloud, making it bright again. A preprint of the paper is on arXiv.

LOFAR radio data completes the picture

The radio shape comes from Europe’s LOFAR telescope network, while infrared data came from the UK Infrared Telescope. NASA notes that the likeness to a treble clef is pareidolia, the habit of seeing familiar shapes in random patterns. Objects like this help astronomers understand how black holes and cluster mergers heat and stir the largest structures in the universe.

Why It Matters: Hidden behind our own galaxy, the object shows how X-ray and radio telescopes working together can solve puzzles that were invisible a decade ago.

Also on TrendDesh: Farthest fast radio burst traced to a tiny dwarf galaxy by Webb, hinting at a magnetar origin · NGC 1275 black hole flared in X-rays, then fired radio jets about 300 days later

Source: NASA · arXiv

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