Abstract
Recent observational evidence1–6 indicating the apparent precession of jets in compact and extended radio sources suggests the presence of a second massive body in the nuclei of the associated active galaxies7 (we include quasars as active nuclei). On the basis of their similarities with close binaries in the Galaxy, two of which (SS433 and Her X-1) are known to contain precessing beams and disks, we consider here the possibility that the secondary object is a Roche overflowing supermassive star (SMS) of mass M2∼106−108M⊙ in orbit around a primary massive black hole (MBH) of mass M1∼107−109M⊙.
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Whitmire, D., Matese, J. Supermassive binaries in active galactic nuclei. Nature 293, 722–724 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1038/293722a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/293722a0
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