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Nature 444, 699 (7 December 2006) | doi:10.1038/444699a; Published online 6 December 2006

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Astrophysics: Unity among black holes

Jörn Wilms1

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Black holes box at two weights: active galactic nuclei are in the super-heavyweight class, whereas galactic black holes are relative featherweights. But does the same physics pack both objects' punches? It seems that it does.

The existence of black holes — agglomerations of mass so concentrated that their gravitational pull allows nothing, not even light, to escape from them — is perhaps the most intriguing prediction of Einstein's general theory of relativity. Since the early 1960s, astronomers have identified two types of compact source that are probably black holes.

  1. Jörn Wilms is at the Dr. Karl Remeis-Sternwarte Bamberg, Astronomisches Institut der Universität Erlangen–Nürnberg, Sternwartstras zlige 7, 96049 Bamberg, Germany.
    Email: joern.wilms@sternwarte.uni-erlangen.de

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