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Article: Most galaxies hiding huge, star-eating black holes, astronomers say.(Originated from Knight-Ridder Newspapers)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- January 13, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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TORONTO _ Giant black holes millions of times more massive than the Sun lurk in the hearts of most galaxies in the universe, astronomers announced Monday. Like one-way vacuum cleaners, they have swept up tons of dust and countless stars never to be seen again.
Though earlier observations had detected a few of these star-eating monster black holes, the new finding shows they are ubiquitous and probably acted as an important force in the shaping of the universe.
In fact, their massive gravitational attraction may have helped create galaxies by pulling stars, gas and dust into clumps as everything was flying apart after the big bang.
The ...