Countless secret black holes might be found to exist at the core of our Milky Way galaxy.

Recent research shows that there can possibly be anywhere between several tens to several hundreds of black holes within the Milky Way galaxy’s nucleus. Scientists said it was discovered that galaxy’s evolution has been predicted for decades but was only observed for the first time, which supports current theories on how galaxies evolve. Almost all galaxies including the Milky Way Galaxy has only one massive black hole at its centre that increases in mass as it gobbles objects like stars and whole star clusters.

The researchers have deemed this core area as containing smaller black holes surrounding the supermassive black hole; however, until now, there was no evidence to support the presence of such a cluster. In the new study, Charles Hailey, an astrophysicist at Columbia University, and his colleagues used the data from one such telescope which is the Chandra X-ray Observatory which is an orbiting telescope and the instruments on this telescope are designed for detecting high energy radiation from hot gas and other debris matter from exploded stars and black holes.

In particular, when they observed the region of the space that is roughly within 12 light-years from Sagittarius A*, the black hole residing in the centre of the Milky Way, they identified hundreds of x-ray sources. The scientists discovered that when they tried to compare the x-ray emissions of people who were closer to Sagittarius A* to those who were distantly located to it, then they realized that the difference was almighty. For example Hailey said that there are some x-ray sources within 3.

Slightly over three light years away from the center of the galaxy, a proportionate amount of light measures at the highest end of the energy spectrum. According to present day galaxy evolution scenarios, there might be only one such source around Sagittarius A*. However, the team found only 12, as described in Nature paper by the team.

Especially, the paper claims that at least six of the x-ray sources, or all twelve, could be x-ray binaries according to Hailey. In most cases, one of the members of the pair is a typical star, while the second member is either a black hole or a neutron star. Still, Hailey said emissions from x-ray binaries which involve neutron stars usually occur and decrease in frequency every 5-10 years mostly. Since the x-ray output has remained constant for the last 12 years, Hailey is sure that these binaries should include small-mass black holes. “These are not many sources, but the sources are quite fascinating,” said Fiona Harrison, an astrophysicist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, who was not involved in the research.

“The ratios of high energy to low energy x-rays from these sources are as expected from low mass binaries with black hole complements,” she pointed out. X-ray binary systems are not very common in the vicinity of the solar system. But astronomers have come to understand that for every such system, there are many more black holes in the universe that remain unpartnered.

The single black holes themselves would themselves not be visible at the galactic nucleus The x-ray binaries act as a beacon pointing to the black holes and indicating that there are many of them at the galactic nucleus. If only six x-ray sources contain a black hole, Hailey et al propose that there are between 300 to 500 black holes that go it alone and orbit within three.

It is approximately 3 light years away from the galactic centre. As mentioned by Harrison, the study may conceivably contribute towards understanding the creation and development of x-ray binaries.

For example, black holes at the center of a galaxy are more likely to find other neighboring stars to merge with and from which they pull material resulting in x rays than if they were located in any other less dense area of the stellar cluster. “How these forming structures look is not very clear,” she said.

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