There is an enormous black hole at the center of every galaxy, gobbling up matter over eons of time - some for as long as 13 billion years. One of the great questions of modern astronomy is: Where did the seeds for all these black holes come from? Not, as you might think, from the fiery collapse of massive hot stars formed in the early Universe, says Fellow Mitch Begelman. That may well be how new, much smaller black holes are formed, even now. However, despite long-standing theories to the contrary, Begelman believes that ancient supernovae cannot account for the genesis of the black holes as massive as a million suns at the center of galaxies.