Warped stars feed black holes to fatten them up

摘要

Why 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.rnBlack 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.