While there have been extensive previous studies of mergers between two galaxies, a recent study that helps reveal what happens when three galaxies merge is one of the first to systematically look at the consequences for the supermassive black holes at their hearts when a trio of galaxies comes together.

An international team of researchers, most of whom have ties to KIPAC, has shown that the hot diffuse gas that fills the space between the galaxies has the same concentration of iron in all galaxy clusters that were studied in sufficient detail by the Japanese Suzaku satellite.

An international team of researchers, most of whom have ties to KIPAC, has shown that the hot diffuse gas that fills the space between the galaxies has the same concentration of iron in all galaxy clusters that were studied in sufficient detail by the Japanese Suzaku satellite.

These results confirm the team's earlier findings regarding the Perseus Cluster, published in Nature, which suggested that most of the iron in the Universe was produced and spread throughout intergalactic space before galaxy clusters formed, more than 10 billion years ago. The iron, along with many other elements, was blown out of galaxies by the combined energy of billions of supernovae, as well as outbursts from growing supermassive black holes.