Did supermassive black holes collapse directly out of giant clouds of gas? It could depend on magnetic fields

Roughly a half-century ago, astronomers realized that the powerful radio source coming from the center of our galaxy (Sagitarrius A*) was a "monster" black hole. Since then, they have found that supermassive black holes (SMBHs) reside at the center of most massive galaxies. This leads to what is known as Active galactic nuclei (AGN) or quasars, where the central region of a galaxy is so energetic that it outshines all of the stars in its galactic disk. In all that time, astronomers have puzzled ...