The researchers focus on stellar-mass black holes, the smallest-known variety, but note that their calculations could help address the longstanding mystery of how supermassive black holes proliferated.

But astronomers have figured out that black holes are at the center of large concentrations of light-emitting matter (our own Milky Way features a supermassive black hole at its center).

The research is the first in a series of works that is attempting to model black hole masses, from star-sized ones up to supermassive black holes.

Stellar-mass black holes arise from the collapsed cores of dead stars, but the origins of supermassive black holes are more of a mystery.