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The Salpeter timescale (or Salpeter time) is the timescale for black hole growth, reflecting the Eddington limit. A growing black hole heats its accreting material, which glows, and at some level of accretion, the resulting luminosity's radiation pressure would fully counteract the accretion, resulting in a limit on the possible accretion rate. The timescale is 5×107 years, i.e., the limitation imposed by Eddington luminosity, which suggests a black hole will grow to no more than a factor of e in that many years.