theboehmer t1_jdxxymc wrote on March 28, 2023 at 12:21 AM

Reply to comment by jaibhavaya in Are galaxies just giant accretion disks around super massive black holes? by darthvadercock

From what I understand, black holes are incredibly massive. They formed systems that added to the collective mass(gravity), which in turn led to more and more collected mass(stars/dust/what not). Over billions of years it's now the galaxy we know. Our galaxy is in a group of galaxies that will evolve and attract until they merge, growing further.

jaibhavaya t1_jdy8uyq wrote on March 28, 2023 at 1:42 AM

Yea! That’s certainly how I understand it. I was curious how that fit into the black hole contributing little to holding the galaxy together as commented. Maybe it just plays a larger part in the early formation of the galaxy.

ktElwood t1_jdz0o5c wrote on March 28, 2023 at 5:52 AM

Rather think of them as incredibly dense.

A black hole the mass of earth would be super small, but would have the same "gravitational pull"

theboehmer t1_jdzluqe wrote on March 28, 2023 at 10:50 AM

True, it's a little counterintuitive thinking more mass equals smaller radius