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Now, however, astronomers Fan Zou and W. Niel Brandt, both of Penn State University, have led a team that connected the two mechanisms of black-hole growth from observations and simulations. The results may provide some answers at last.

Related: NASA telescope spots ‘cosmic fireworks’ and faint echos from the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole

“A very big question is how do these supermassive black holes grow so massive?” said Zou while presenting their work at the 244th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Wisconsin… “To address that, we need to track the overall growth history of these supermassive black holes.”