Supermassive Black Holes May Enhance Star Formation

Very Large Telescope observations show that active galactic nuclei in nine nearby Seyfert galaxies are linked to star formation. Researchers found arcs and rings of new stars 0.8–6 kiloparsecs from the cores, plus shock fronts running perpendicular to black hole outflows.

• Nine Seyfert galaxies within 360 million light-years studied
• Star formation occurs 0.8–6 kiloparsecs from galactic cores
• Shocks run perpendicular to black hole outflows
• VLT data backed by Chandra X-ray observations