Do black holes help stars form?
Friday, February 3, 2012 - 08:03
in Astronomy & Space
(PhysOrg.com) -- The center of just about every galaxy is thought to host a black hole, some with masses of thousands of millions of Suns and consequently strong gravitational pulls that disrupt material around them. They had been thought to hinder the birth of stars, but now an international team of astronomers studying the nearby galaxy Centaurus A has found quite the opposite: a black hole that seems to be helping stars to form. The team, led by Dr. Stanislav Shabala of the University of Tasmania, Dr. Mark Crockett of the University of Oxford, and Dr. Sugata Kaviraj of Imperial College, London, publish their results in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.