In the Beginning, All Was—Black Holes?

A recent study led by astrophysicist Marianne Vestergaard of Ohio State University bolsters a revisionist view that black holes— regions of space so dense that even light cannot escape their gravitational pull— are not always destructive. They may also play a creative role, acting as the seeds around which galaxies grow.

Many of these distant galaxies may have formed in concert with giant black holes.Photographs courtesy of ESO.