Dark matter guides growth of supermassive black holes

Every massive galaxy has a black hole at its center, and the heftier the galaxy, the bigger its black hole. But why are the two related? After all, the black hole is millions of times smaller and less massive than its home galaxy.

A new study of football-shaped collections of stars called elliptical galaxies provides new insights into the connection between a galaxy and its black hole. It finds that the invisible hand of dark matter somehow influences black hole growth.

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CrazyNeutrino said:

Dark matter guides growth of supermassive black holes

Every massive galaxy has a black hole at its center, and the heftier the galaxy, the bigger its black hole. But why are the two related? After all, the black hole is millions of times smaller and less massive than its home galaxy.

A new study of football-shaped collections of stars called elliptical galaxies provides new insights into the connection between a galaxy and its black hole. It finds that the invisible hand of dark matter somehow influences black hole growth.

more…

Not necessarily every massive galaxy has a black hole at its centre. The correlation in mass applies only to elliptical galaxies and the elliptical hubs of spiral galaxies, not to the spiral galaxy as a whole. The linked article is written by someone with no knowledge of astronomy.

The key words of the linked article are: “They found a distinct relationship between the mass of the dark matter halo and the black hole mass — a relationship stronger than that between a black hole and the galaxy’s stars alone.”

Now that’s interesting.

mollwollfumble said:

CrazyNeutrino said:

Dark matter guides growth of supermassive black holes

Every massive galaxy has a black hole at its center, and the heftier the galaxy, the bigger its black hole. But why are the two related? After all, the black hole is millions of times smaller and less massive than its home galaxy.

A new study of football-shaped collections of stars called elliptical galaxies provides new insights into the connection between a galaxy and its black hole. It finds that the invisible hand of dark matter somehow influences black hole growth.

more…

Not necessarily every massive galaxy has a black hole at its centre. The correlation in mass applies only to elliptical galaxies and the elliptical hubs of spiral galaxies, not to the spiral galaxy as a whole. The linked article is written by someone with no knowledge of astronomy.

The key words of the linked article are: “They found a distinct relationship between the mass of the dark matter halo and the black hole mass — a relationship stronger than that between a black hole and the galaxy’s stars alone.”

Now that’s interesting.

Could dark matter have a force stronger than gravity?