Supermassive stars at the origin of supermassive black holes

In an article just published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, two Japanese astrophysicists show, through simulations, that supermassive stars of more than 10,000 solar masses can be formed in clouds of gases already enriched with metals. These supermassive stars then become as many seeds of supermassive black holes after a million years. If too many metals are present, a fragmentation of the gas appears and gives rise to…