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> 2. An intermediate mass black hole formed directly from the direct collapse of a large gas cloud and then grew into a SMBH. Based on my limited understanding
by MichaelDickens 7y ago
> 2. An intermediate mass black hole formed directly from the direct collapse of a large gas cloud and then grew into a SMBH.
Based on my limited understanding of cosmology, wouldn't the gas first form a star, and not form a SMBH until the star's nuclear reaction became too weak?
- andrewflnr 7y agoPut enough mass in the right radius and fusion can't do jack about it. Over a large enough area, IIRC it doesn't actually take a very high density, so it never has to reach a point where it can fuse before the event horizon forms.
- Anarch157a 7y agoI recall someone calculating that a sphere of gas with a radius equal to Neptune's orbit, with the same density of air at sea level would mass 4 million solar masses. That means if we filled thw Solar system with air, it would form a SMBH.
- a1369209993 7y agoNot if the gas cloud is large enough. Small gas clouds (white dwarfs, neutron 'star's) produce enough presure from particle degeneracy to support themselves against gravity, medium clouds (stars) need active heating (from fusion) to keep gas particles moving fast enough to remain far enough apart to avoid forming a black hole, and for sufficiently large clouds even having the gas particles moving at the speed of light wouldn't be enough to avoid forming a black hole.