Researchers think a unique event occurred with the three black holes: the third larger supermassive black hole may have affected the merging of the two smaller black holes, sending the newly formed black hole hurtling through the related accretion disk, disrupting the disk material and producing a flare of light. The newly formed black hole was 100 times the mass of the sun and travelled at 200 km/s (120 mi/s) through the disk, according to the astronomers.[5]