Great black holes grow in the universe faster than their galaxies. Researchers have reached this result through observations using the Chandra X-ray Observatory of NASA and other telescopes.
US researchers said the size of so-called "super black holes", which are twice as big as our sun, is growing faster than the new stars in their galaxies, according to NASA.
Most galaxies have a large black hole in their center that regularly devour materials approaching it. Researchers have so far believed that the star formation rate is roughly equal to that of black holes.
Based on new observations, researchers led by Prof. Guang Yang from The Pennsylvania State University, compared the growth rate of massive black holes, with the rate of star formation in their galaxies.
Surprisingly, researchers found that the growth rate of black holes is much higher than the rate of star formation, and that this difference increases as the size of the galaxy is 10 times bigger in a galaxy with about 100 billion suns, compared with a galaxy with only 10 billion suns. The researchers have not yet reached an explanation for this, according to German news agency DPA.
Neil Brandt from the research team suggested that massive galaxies may be feeding their super black holes.
The researchers published their study in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS) journal.
Our galaxy, the Milky Way, has about 300 billion suns. Since these processes occur only at the center of galaxies, and very far apart from the human perspective, this means they do not include our sun.
Observations made by a team of researchers support this analysis. Researchers under the supervision of Mar Mezcua of the University of Barcelona, studied 72 of the largest and most brilliant galaxies in the world famous Atlas, and re-evaluated the mass of its black centers another time.
"We found black holes much bigger than we thought," Mezcua said.
The Spanish researcher explained that the rate of mass of black holes is 10 times greater than what was expected if they were growing as fast as their galaxies.
About half of the black holes in the study are classified among the holes of enormous gravity, and have a mass of 10 billion suns and more, reported the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS) journal.
However, researchers were not able to explain this seemingly massive growth among black holes. "These holes may already have an advantage in growth," Mezcua said, adding: "Or perhaps its growth rate has already been superior over billions of years."
