To date, blackholes have been known to be violent and destructive. However, a new study has brought to light evidence suggesting that black holes have the capacity to give birth to stars.
The discovery was made after astrophysicists witnessed a black hole 30 million light-years away, in the dwarf starburst galaxy known as Henize 2-10, to spawn stars.
The observation was made through NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, and it is the first time that scientists have come to know that black holes have the capacity for star formation.
The study, published in Nature, was led by Amy Reines. She told The Independent:
"From the beginning I knew something unusual and special was happening in Henize 2-10, and now Hubble has provided a very clear picture of the connection between the black hole and a neighboring star forming region located 230 light-years from the black hole."
Zachary Schutte, a graduate student and co-author of the study, said:
"At only 30 million light-years away, Henize 2-10 is close enough that Hubble was able to capture both images and spectroscopic evidence of a black hole outflow very clearly. The additional surprise was that, rather than suppressing star formation, the outflow was triggering the birth of new stars."
The landmark study can provide a deeper understanding of how supermassive black holes are formed, as well as how black holes are developing in their early stages.
Reines said:
"The era of the first black holes is not something that we have been able to see, so it really has become the big question: where did they come from? Dwarf galaxies may retain some memory of the black hole seeding scenario that has otherwise been lost to time and space."
[Based on reporting by: The Mind Unleashed]
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