![]() An important area of modern astrophysics is determining how supermassive black holes came to be: Were they formed with such high masses, or did their mass build up over time? Understanding these questions can give insights into the cosmic origins of our galaxy. ![]() The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way is, commonly known as Sgr A*, with a mass of over 4 million suns. Supermassive black holes: Supermassive black holes are huge, ranging from millions to billions of times the mass of the sun and appear to be in the center of almost all galaxies.They might have formed in environments dense with stars or from mergers of stellar-mass black holes or something completely different. Space Wallpapers Collection (mostly 1920x1080) 9472 votes and 209616 views on Imgur: The magic of the Internet. Scientists believe there are several scenarios that may explain their formation. Astronomers have spotted evidence for a handful of candidates but were only recently able to confirm their existence. 5000x3125 - Supermassive Black Hole at the center of Centaurus A galaxy. This illustration shows a black field speckled with white, yellow and red galaxies. Intermediate-mass black holes: Black holes that range from about a hundred to hundreds of thousands solar masses are called intermediate-mass black holes.Most stellar-mass black holes are roughly five to 10 times more massive than the sun, but the NSF-supported Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory has detected several with masses up to 100 times that of the sun. Stellar-mass black holes: The most common black holes form from the result of a supernova, the catastrophic death of a massive star.While the smallest have likely evaporated, the larger primordial black holes may still exist - though, even those have remained undetected. Most were extremely tiny, about the size of an atom or smaller. Primordial black holes: Many scientists believe these tiny black holes formed from the condensation of raw materials in the early cosmos and emerged soon after the Big Bang.Scientists believe there are four kinds of black holes: primordial, stellar-mass, intermediate-mass and supermassive. This photo shows the Livingston detector site. Credit: Caltech/MIT/LIGO Lab The LIGO Laboratory operates two detector sites, one near Hanford in eastern Washington, and another near Livingston, Louisiana.
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