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Black Holes and SpacetimeModule 4Feeding, Spinning, and Growing
Module 4 / Lesson 15 of 2436 min
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What Separates Stellar-Mass and Supermassive Black Holes?

How do mass, environment, feeding, and formation history change the system we observe?

You defined M☉, scaled a model horizon diameter, separated binaries from galactic nuclei, treated intermediate-mass objects as a difficult candidate population, and recognized quasar as an activity state.

An artistic comparison of a stellar companion feeding a compact black-hole disk, a dense star cluster, and a bright galactic nucleus around a supermassive black hole.
Vastward artistic reconstruction. The stellar binary, cluster, and galactic nucleus show different environments and are not placed on one physical scale; black holes themselves are inferred from their effects.

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