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Black Holes and Galaxies Coexisted In Early Universe
Black holes and galaxies existed together during the first one percent of our universe’s existence. Find out why this upends conventional thinking on how stars, galaxies and black holes formed after the Big Bang.
Like a lot of folks my age, the first time I heard the term “Black Hole” was because of the 1979 Disney film with that title. It was kind of a “me-too” version of Star Wars and Star Trek, the critics panned it, and nobody seems to remember it anymore.
A black hole is a region of space where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape. The first person to think black holes could exist was John Michell in 1784. He calculated that a supermassive star would have so much gravity that its escape velocity would be faster than light, making it invisible.
The idea that there could be invisible stars hiding in plain sight seemed intriguing to astronomers. On the other hand, the debate between those who thought light was a particle and those who thought it was a wave made the theory hard to confirm.
