How did black holes form and evolve?

Black holes are among the most fascinating objects in astronomy. They consist of compact mass which has such a high gravitational field that even light cannot escape. Consequently, these lumps of mass appear black in outer space. Depending on their respective mode of development and mass, scientists distinguish different families of black holes. One formation mechanism for black holes is the collapse of massive stars. The explosion involved in such events is known as supernova type II or hypernova. The mass of stellar black holes is somewhere around 3 to 100 solar masses (one solar mass corresponds to about 2 x 10^30 kilograms). In addition, there are black holes with masses of 10^6 to 10^10 solar masses.

According to current knowledge, these supermassive black holes can be found in nearly all galaxies. Black holes in active galaxies are particularly impressive. Very massive black holes are formed by small black holes merging or through continuous accretion of matter over several billion years.

At the Excellence Cluster Universe, researchers in Research Area F are focussing on stellar and supermassive black holes. Their particular interest is directed at black holes at the center of galaxies and their effects on the development of galaxies.  Within this context, researchers are also looking for the origin of black holes from the first generation of stars in the Universe. For this work, researchers are being aided by gamma-ray bursts, which are thought to occur as a massive star collapses to form a black hole. Nowadays such events can be observed with the aid of special telescopes.