Dawn of the black holes
The First Massive Black Hole Seeds and Their Hosts
(Science News) The seeds of the universe’s first black holes could have formed in gas halos much smaller than previously calculated, Canadian and American astronomers report online April 21 at arXiv.org. Simulated seeds about 100 times the sun’s mass were more common in massive gas halos, as expected (more mass means more stuff to collapse into a black hole). But because smaller halos may birth fewer stars — and fewer stars mean more pristine gas is available to collapse — seed formation could continue in smaller halos longer than in larger ones. The results jibe with two competing theories of supermassive black holes and could explain why some small galaxies have big black holes. —Camille Carlisle
The First Massive Black Hole Seeds and Their Hosts