Black Hole Is Also Birth Hole, Astronomers Discover

She’s a hole, she’s a destroyer of light, she’s a mama

Human eye and space. Elements of this image furnished by NASA.
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Space Mother

Ariana Grande may have had a point when she took on the form of a sort of cosmic goddess-mother and belted, “God is a woman.” Now, scientists have discovered that a black hole at the center of a galaxy far, far away has been driving the birth of nearby stars.

Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers found a connection between the central black hole of a dwarf starburst galaxy called Henize 2-10 — located 30 million light-years away in the Pyxis constellation — and the formation of fresh-faced, rosy-cheeked baby starlets nearby, according to a newly published paper in the journal Nature. As CNN puts it, there is “a gaseous umbilical cord stretching from a black hole at the center of the galaxy to a stellar nursery where stars are born,” which lends itself to some really vivid imagery.

“From the beginning I knew something unusual and special was happening in Henize 2-10, and now Hubble has provided a very clear picture of the connection between the black hole and a neighboring star forming region located 230 light-years from the black hole,” said study co-author Amy E. Reines in a statement, per CNN.

Not to be judgmental, but black holes are typically not known to be great mothers, since they have a tendency of sucking in light and matter and rendering all conceptions of space and time absolutely void. But this proud maternal hole apparently provides a stream of gas that interacts with the dense gas cloud, creating conditions that are perfect for new stars to form. Yes, mama! Creating life and looking absolutely stunning while doing so.