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The Salpeter timescale (or Salpeter time) is the timescale for black hole growth, based upon the Eddington limit: a growing black hole heats accretion material, which glows and is subject to the luminosity limit. The timescale is 5×107 years, i.e., the limitation imposed by Eddington luminosity suggests a black hole will grow to no more than a factor of e in that many years.