A supermassive black hole has some interesting properties differing from his low-mass cousins:
Black holes of this size can only form in two ways: by slow accretion of matter (starting from a stellar size), or directly from external pressure in the first instants of Big Bang. The first method requires a long time and large amounts of matter available for the black hole growth.
Most galaxies are thought to host a supermassive black hole in their center. For some, direct redshift measures of the matter surrounding the nucleus[?] have revealed a very fast motion, only possible with a high concentration of matter in the center. Currently, the only known object that can pack enough matter in such a small space is a black hole.
Such supermassive black holes in the center of many galaxies are thought to be the "engine" of active objects such as seyfert galaxies and quasars.
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