If so, that means that the black holes are around 100 times less massive than previously estimated. The upshot is that the supposedly “overmassive” behemoths are actually just young supermassive black holes. But if that’s the case, why don’t they resemble any black holes that we’re seeing today? An even bolder hypothesis proposes they’re “black hole stars” consisting of a black hole core surrounded by a sphere of gas so dense that it resembles the outer layers of a star. “Does the galaxy start with the supermassive black hole or with the stars?” Rusakov pondered.