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Scientists: Black Hole Helps Spawn Stars

Astronomers say the mysterious, massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way helped give birth to new stars, challenging earlier theories that black holes are solely destructive forces.

Their observations, announced Thursday, will be published in a future issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

"Massive black holes are usually known for violence and destruction,"

Black holes are believed to be the invisible remains of collapsed stars. Their gravitational pull is so powerful not even light can escape.

Astronomers believe the gravity of the gas disks helped offset the tidal force of the black hole in a tug-of-war that allowed the stars to form.

Scientists have ruled out the possibility that a star cluster formed far away and somehow migrated near the black hole. Some 10,000 low-mass stars formed near the black hole. If there had been a migration, scientists surmised they would have found at least a million such stars.






Resources: ABCNews, Chandra X-ray Observatory, NASA

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