Recent astronomical observations have indicated the existence of supermassive black holes at the centres of most, perhaps all, galaxies, and also that immensely powerful relativistic jets of protons and electrons may occasionally emanate from some such supermassive black holes. Together these observations suggest a possible mechanism for alternative star formation, which may require a revision of the traditional classification of stars into a more recent Population I and a more ancient Population II. Rather than assumedly being members of an older generation of stars preceding Population I, maybe many Population II stars could perhaps actually be younger than Population I stars, with their lower metallicity being an effect of their much more recent creation from the pristine hydrogen left by such relativistic jets.

Big-bang vs steady-state, supermassive black holes, relativistic jets