SETI Institute Explores Planet Formation Around Supermassive Black Holes
The SETI Institute, through a 'SETI Live' conversation, is exploring the surprising possibility that planet-mass objects could form in the dusty regions surrounding actively feeding supermassive black holes. Research scientists Dr. Lauren Sgro, Dr. Bhupendra Mishra, and Dr. Wladimir Lyra discussed new simulations suggesting that active galactic nuclei (AGN) environments, which are central regions of galaxies where supermassive black holes actively consume gas, could facilitate the formation of objects with planetary masses. These simulations indicate that processes similar to planet formation around stars, specifically 'streaming instability' where dust grains clump together, could lead to the creation of objects initially around Jupiter's mass. Unlike Jupiter, which is primarily gas, these objects would initially form from solid material. The research suggests that a single active phase of an AGN, typically lasting around two million years, could produce approximately a million such planet-mass objects. T...
