New Scientist - 23 April 2010
The Nuclear Stellar Disk in Andromeda: A Fossil from the Era of Black Hole GrowthWHY are supermassive black holes so, well, supermassive? It has long been a mystery how enough matter can reach these cosmic gluttons to swell them to such large sizes. Now it seems the answer could be connected to a starry disc at the heart of the Andromeda galaxy. Although they may be hard to see, such discs may be common.
Black holes millions or billions times as massive as the sun reside at the heart of most galaxies, including our own. These black holes have been fattened up by huge amounts of gas. But astronomers don't know how that gas makes it through a final hurdle, migrating the last dozens or hundreds of light years to be eaten.
- arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1002.1079 > (Submitted: 04 Feb 2010 (v1), Last Revised: 31 Mar 2010 (v2))