The complex dance of two black holes locked in a doomed orbit has been revealed in a first-of-its-kind direct radio image.

It’s the first time astronomers have directly imaged the distinct jets of both black holes in a known binary – finally confirming the model of the double core of a galaxy called OJ 287.

In OJ 287, located some 3.5 billion light-years away, the intricate, extreme interplay between the two central supermassive black holes has been documented for decades. This is the first image to capture smoking-gun signatures of both objects, however.