Growing Supermassive Black Holes from Seeds

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This artists conception depicts the merger of two black holes surrounded by disks of hot gas. The black holes orbit each other for hundreds of millions of years before they merge to form a single more massive black hole sending out intense gravitatio ...
This artist's conception depicts the merger of two black holes surrounded by disks of hot gas. The black holes orbit each other for hundreds of millions of years before they merge to form a single, more massive black hole, sending out intense gravitational waves in the process. Credit: NASA / CXC / A. Hobart.

Astronomers announced today that they have found the first sample of intermediate-mass black holes in active galaxies - a discovery that will help in understanding the early universe. "These are local analogues of the `seed' black holes from which supermassive black holes formed," said Ms. Jenny E. Greene of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.


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