Until now scientists have believed that the size of a spiral galaxy's black hole is pretty much directly proportional to its mass. As far as I know, black holes don't consume the entire galaxy. -- Joe ________________________________ From: RON VANDERHULE <deepsky100@msn.com> To: utah-astronomy <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Saturday, December 1, 2012 12:06 AM Subject: [Utah-astronomy] super massive black hole I am not sure what I am missing about the unusual nature of NGC 1277 and its' massive black hole.  Isn't the purpose of a black hole to feed on its' host galaxy until the meal is finished?  So the more a black hole consumes the bigger it gets and the smaller the host galaxy gets.  We see this in NGC 1277 and it will be our fate also in the future.  Yes? As long as I have your attention what percentage of time does the Universe spend reshuffling and merging of galaxies as compared to existing in a somewhat finished state??? Ron                         _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Send messages to the list to Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com The Utah-Astronomy mailing list is not affiliated with any astronomy club. To unsubscribe go to: http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Then enter your email address in the space provided and click on "Unsubscribe or edit options".