'Ultramassive' Black Holes Can Grow Faster Than Host Galaxies

Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Penn. State/G. Yang et al & NASA/CXC/ICE/M. Mezcua et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI; Illustration: NASA/CXC/A. Jubett

 Research from two studies headed by scientists at Penn State and the Institute of Space Sciences in Barcelona, Spain has found that some of the biggest black holes in the universe may be growing faster than their host galaxies.
 Using data collected by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes, one of the studies examined the rate at which black holes accumulated mass in galaxies located about 4.3 billion to 12.2 billion light-years from Earth. This rate was then compared to the growth rate of stars in the host galaxy.
 Earlier research suggested that the growth rate of stars was parallel to the growth rate of black holes, however the new findings suggest otherwise. The research found that with a larger galaxy, there was a larger ratio between the growth rate of its black hole and its stars.
 "We found black holes that are far bigger than we expected," said Mar Mezcua , lead author of the second study who discovered that black holes grow about 10 times faster than large galaxy's stars are formed."Maybe they got a head start in this race to grow, or maybe they've had an edge in speed of growth that's lasted billions of years."

Read more about this fascinating story at: https://www.space.com/39919-black-holes-grow-faster-than-host-galaxies.html
Or read the full studies at:
https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.09399
https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.10268