How are black holes related to galaxies?
1 Answer
Supermassive black holes are at the heart of every galaxy universe. But why? This an intense area of study and we aren’t sure yet, but there are some conjectures:
- It could be that the dark matter halo that surrounds every galaxy serves to focus and concentrate material as the galaxy was first forming. And some of this material became the supermassive black hole, while the rest became the stars of the galaxy.
- It is also possible that the black hole formed first, and collected the rest of the galaxy around it with it's immense gravity
Explanation:
How supermassive black holes form and their roles in the creation and maintenance of galactic structures is under study. It is important to note that supermassive black holes are different than black holes. The latter, "stellar mass black holes" are created when a star at least 5 times larger than the Suns runs out of fuel and collapses in on itself forming a black hole.
