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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Astronomers have observed 12 X-ray emitting binary systems [npr.org] 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 [columbia.edu], 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 [nature.com] [DOI: 10.1038/nature25029] [DX [doi.org]].

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 [bbc.com] and The Register [theregister.co.uk].

Original Submission