In an arXiv physics preprint, Timothy Heckman of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, explains how supermassive black holes at the center of certain types of galaxy generate and spread energy to the outer reaches of the galaxy that has an impact on regulating star formation in the galaxy’s outer reaches.

We’ve certainly seen good evidence of supermassive black holes in various galaxies, including our own, Heckman says. His latest work has implications for galactic evolution.

He suggests that there is a symbiotic relationship between galaxies and supermassive black holes – one needs the other to form. In other words, without a supermassive black hole a galaxy would be nothing and without the galaxy there would be no black hole.

So, about those microscopic black holes some scientists say might form during a hadron collision in the LHC…can we expect a miniature starburst too?