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takyon writes:

Astronomers have observed 12 X-ray emitting binary systems near the center of the Milky Way galaxy, pointing to a population of thousands of black holes within a 6 light year wide region of space:

The supermassive black hole lurking at the center of our galaxy appears to have a lot of company, according to a new study that suggests the monster is surrounded by about 10,000 other black holes. [...] For decades, scientists have thought that black holes should sink to the center of galaxies and accumulate there, says Chuck Hailey, an astrophysicist at Columbia University. But scientists had no proof that these exotic objects had actually gathered together in the center of the Milky Way.

[...] Isolated black holes are almost impossible to detect, but black holes that have a companion — an orbiting star — interact with that star in ways that allow the pair to be spotted by telltale X-ray emissions. The team searched for those signals in a region stretching about three light-years out from our galaxy's central supermassive black hole. [...] What they found there: a dozen black holes paired up with stars, according to a report in the journal Nature [DOI: 10.1038/nature25029] [DX].

Black holes with binary companions are thought to be rare but are easier to spot than isolated black holes, leading to the high estimate.

Also at BBC and The Register.

Original Submission