Supermassive black holes, millions to billions of times the mass of our Sun, are found at the centers of galaxies.
A significant number of these tremendous articles are hidden within a doughnut-shaped cloud of dust and gas known as a torus.
“A torus can contain as much as a hundred thousand times the mass of the Sun worth of dust. This is a billion times the dust mass of a protoplanetary disk,” said Professor Eiichiro Kokubo from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and partners.
“In a low temperature region of a protoplanetary disk, dust grains with ice mantles stick together and evolve into fluffy aggregates.”
“A dust disk around a black hole is so dense that the intense radiation from the central region is blocked and low-temperature regions are formed.”
The astrophysicists examined a development way from little frigid residue particles to Earth-sized planetary bodies in such low-temperature locales, found a few light-years from supermassive dark gaps in low-iridescence dynamic galactic cores.
“Our calculations show that tens of thousands of planets with 10 times the mass of the Earth could be formed around 10 light-years from a black hole,” Professor Kokubo said.
“Around black holes there might exist planetary systems of astonishing scale.”
“With the right conditions, planets could be formed even in harsh environments, such as around a black hole,” said Professor Keiichi Wada, from Kagoshima, Ehime and Hokkaido Universities.
Disclaimer: The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No A News Week journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.