Black hole bounty captured at center of Milky Way galaxy in NASA image
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Astronomers have found evidence for thousands of black holes near the center of the Milky Way galaxy using data from NASA's Chandray X-ray Observatory.
According to NASA, this bounty of black holes consists of stellar-mass black holes, which tend to weight between five to 30 times the mass of our sun.
They were discovered within three light-years of the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way's center -- known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*).
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Theoretical studies of the dynamics of stars in galaxies have indicated that a large population of stellar mass black holes — as many as 20,000 — could drift inward over the eons and collect around Sgr A*," according to the space agency.
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Astronomers have discovered evidence for thousands of black holes located near the center of our Milky Way galaxy. (NASA/Chandra X-Ray Observatory)
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}This recent analysis using Chandra data is the first observational evidence for such a black hole bounty.
A black hole by itself is invisible. However, a black hole — or neutron star — locked in close orbit with a star will pull gas from its companion.
The material then falls into a disk, heats up to millions of degrees and produces X-rays before eventually disppearing into the black hole.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Several of these X-ray binaries appear as point-like sources in the Chandra image.