Supermassive black holes may provide a nursery for mini ones to grow

The supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies may capture smaller black holes. Not only does this prove a place for the small black holes to grow, it also makes the supermassive ones look even bigger and brighter

By Leah Crane

We may have a clearer understanding of why the accretion disc around large black holes is so bright

Dana Berry/SkyWorks Digital/NASA

Thousands of relatively small black holes may be circling the supermassive black holes that lurk at the centres of galaxies. The idea would not only help explain how small black holes grow larger, it would also give us a new understanding of why supermassive black holes appear so bright.

The centres of galaxies are extraordinarily dense, so matter - including relatively small, or stellar-mass, black holes - tends to accumulate there. Some of…

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