Galactic bars act like cosmic funnels to feed gas into supermassive black holes
Enormous celestial bars at the center of spiral galaxies serve as gravity-driven funnels, dragging vast amounts of gas and dust into supermassive black holes to trigger intense star formation.
In barred spiral galaxies like IC 486, a central elongated structure of stars and gas acts as a cosmic funnel. This bar uses density waves to channel molecular clouds toward the galactic center, fueling supermassive black holes that can exceed 100 million solar masses. As the gas falls inward, it creates brilliant blue starburst regions where new stars form at rates ten times higher than in galaxies without bars.
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