In a groundbreaking revelation, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has unveiled the Infinity Galaxy, a peculiar cosmic entity that may host a "direct collapse black hole". This black hole is theorized to have formed directly from a massive cloud of gas and dust, rather than from the remnants of a dying star.

The Infinity Galaxy, aptly named for its enchanting resemblance to the infinity symbol (or sideways 8), features two striking red lobes or "nuclei." This unique shape is believed to have emerged from a dramatic collision between two disk galaxies.

What sets this discovery apart is that the black hole resides in a massive cloud of gas right between these two colliding galaxies, rather than within either nucleus. Researchers propose that this very gas cloud may have been the birthplace of the black hole, marking it as the first observational evidence of this extraordinary birth process.

The Infinity Galaxy was discovered during the JWST's extensive 255-hour COSMOS-Web survey. Remarkably, each of the galaxy’s nuclei also harbors a supermassive black hole, amplifying the galaxy’s cosmic significance.

Pieter van Dokkum, a researcher at Yale University and the team leader, expressed wonder: "Everything is unusual about this galaxy. Its bizarre structure and the fact that a supermassive black hole is pulling in material from between them is fascinating. The biggest surprise? It’s not found in either nucleus, but right in the middle. How can we make sense of this?"

Van Dokkum elaborated that while finding a black hole outside a galaxy's nucleus isn't unheard of, the question remains about how this particular black hole came to be in this location.

"It likely didn’t just wander there; instead, we think it formed there relatively recently. We might be witnessing the birth of a supermassive black hole – a phenomenon previously unseen!"