Although the first black holes were discovered in space within the first 100 years following the Big Bang, scientists have struggled for over 20 years to explain why this phenomenon has occurred so quickly. University of Portsmouth astrophysicists found the answer.
It is well known that the Universe after the explosion was nearly homogeneous. Even in the most dense regions of space, the mass distribution of matter was not much different from the average values across space. This means that it will take hundreds and millions of years to accumulate enough matter for the formation or the destruction of first stars or black holes. Scientists know that supermassive black hole formation took place 100-200 million years after the Big Bang.
A new computer model of how the universe formed was created by scientists at the University of Portsmouth. The model revealed that the intersections between cold accretion flow and ordinary matter create dense clouds of ordinary material. The result is that either short-lived stars or black holes appear immediately.
Researchers found that this phenomenon does not require special conditions, contrary to what was previously believed. The help of cold gas flows creates turbulence, which is why stars can only form if they reach critical mass. The dense region collapses immediately after crossing the threshold and black holes are formed.
