Black holes are an important part of how astrophysicists make sense of the universe – so important that scientists have been trying to build a census of all the black holes in the Milky Way galaxy.
Black holes are an important part of how astrophysicists make sense of the universe – so important that scientists have been trying to build a census of all the black holes in the Milky Way galaxy.
But new research shows that their search might have been missing an entire class of black holes that they didn’t know existed.
In a study published today in the journal Science, astronomers offer a new way to search for black holes, and show that it is possible there is a class of black holes smaller than the smallest known black holes in the universe.
“We’re showing this hint that there is another population out there that we have yet to really probe in the search for black holes,” said Todd Thompson, a professor of astronomy at The Ohio State University and lead author of the study.
Read more at Ohio State University
Image by Jason Shults / Ohio State University
