New mechanism on super-massive black holes proposed by Chinese, U.S. researchers

BEIJING, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese and American researchers have proposed a new mechanism for the formation of super-massive black holes at the early stages of the universe without galactic merging, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

The new mechanism provides another possible source for super-massive black holes which scientists generally believe were formed by smaller seed black holes during galactic merging, according to the CAS website.

"This mechanism complements the existing model of black hole merging," said Shen Juntai, lead researcher of the Chinese team.

Researchers at CAS Shanghai Astronomical Observatory and Rutgers University in the United States found that galactic bars could drive sufficient gas into the center of galaxies during their early evolution, providing raw material for rapidly forming super-massive black holes in hundreds of millions of years.

The finding explains observations that super-massive black holes existed at the early stage of the universe and in spiral galaxies that did not undergo obvious merging.

The finding has been published on the Astrophysical Journal. Enditem