New Delhi:
The astrophysicists confirmed that the centre of the Milky Way- the galaxy which houses our solar system is filled with black holes.
They discovered a dozen black holes gathered around Sagittarius A*(sgr A*) the super massive black hole in the centre of the Milky Way galaxy.
It is said that knowing the number of black holes the findings are significantly going to advance gravitational wave research. It can help in better prediction on how many gravitational wave events might be associated with them.
The Astrophysicists needed information at the centre of the galaxy.
The concept of black holes still remains a mystery.
“Finding a galaxy without dark matter is unexpected because this invisible, mysterious substance is the most dominant aspect of any galaxy,” said lead author Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University.
“For decades, we thought that galaxies start their lives as blobs of dark matter. After that everything else happens: gas falls into the dark matter halos, the gas turns into stars, they slowly build up, then you end up with galaxies like the Milky Way. NGC1052-DF2 challenges the standard ideas of how we think galaxies form.”
Researchers said data from the NASA's orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory allowed them to detect a dozen black holes surrounding Sagittarius A*, the mammoth black hole at the center of our spiral-shaped galaxy.
Sagittarius A*, boasting 4 million times the mass of our sun, is located 26,000 light years from Earth. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km).
In the new findings, researchers confirm decades-old predictions, provide insight into a fundamental aspect of galaxies.
"Since our galaxy is very average, it tells us that the universe is teeming with black holes orbiting near their supermassive black holes, because most galaxies have supermassive black holes," Hailey said.
The newly detected black holes are produced by the collapse of massive dying stars. It is hard to find black holes in isolation, but the X-ray signatures of stellar binaries allowed their detection.
"Black holes can form farther out from the center of the galaxy. They gravitationally interact with stars, cosmic collisions so to speak, and lose energy," Hailey said.
