Naked Black Hole Builds Future Galactic Dream Home

from Wired

Astronomers have spied a distant black hole in the act of creating the galaxy that will eventually become its home.

By sending a jet of gas and highly energetic particles into a neighboring galaxy, the black hole has touched off star formation at a rate 100 times the galactic average.

"Our study suggests that supermassive black holes can trigger the formation of stars, thus 'building' their own host galaxies," David Elbaz, lead author of a paper on the work in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, said in a press release. "This link could also explain why galaxies hosting larger black holes have more stars."