We already know that black holes swallow stars — and entire
solar systems — but what effect does a stellar diet have on
black holes? A new study suggests that eating stars is what
turns baby black holes into supermassive black holes. University
of Utah physics and astronomy Professor Ben Bromley led a study
to answer a question that has been much debated among
astronomers: do black holes grow into supermassive black holes
as a result of consuming gas or stars? The study, published in
the Astrophysical Journal Letters, examines binary stars, pairs
of stars the orbit around one another. When a binary star is
captured and swallowed by a black hole, its partner is flung
from its galaxy at a speed of more than one million mph. When
studying the rates at which hypervelocity stars are produced and
observations of supermassive black holes, Bromley found the
rates of hypervelocity stars were consistent with the rate of
tidal disruption events, in which stars are shredded and pulled
into supermassive black holes in oth