Strange Universe Like a parasite sucking the life force out of its host, an international group of scientists have determined that a supermassive black hole is starving a galaxy of essential materials to make new stars.

"The [energy released from gas falling into the] the supermassive black hole is removing large amounts of gas very fast from the galaxy," D'Eugenio explained. "Without this gas, no new stars can be formed, so this galaxy is losing the `shine' of young and bright stars, and has already started it's long history of fading."

Astronomers have detected a supermassive black hole starving its galaxy of gas, halting star formation in the early universe.