Contact: Janet Rettig Emanuel
janet.emanuel@yale.edu
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Yale University

Cosmic Contraception? Extremely Massive Black Holes in the Centers of Galaxies

Caption: Extremely massive black holes in the centers of galaxies may serve as 'cosmic contraceptives' in the early Universe, suppressing the birth of new stars. The blue beam of light in this Hubble Space Telescope image of the nearby galaxy M87 emanates from a black hole which has a mass exceeding a billion times that of the Sun.

Credit: NASA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Usage Restrictions: with credit given

Related news release: Stellar birth control in the early universe