Black Hole found in middle of our galaxy

Core of the Milky Way galaxy, taken with Nasa's Spitzer space telescope
The Milky Way was tracked from an observatory in Chile

There is a giant black hole at the centre of our galaxy, a study has confirmed.

German astronomers tracked the movement of 28 stars circling the centre of the Milky Way, using the European Southern Observatory in Chile.

The black hole is four million times heavier than our Sun, according to the paper in The Astrophysical Journal.

Black holes are objects whose gravity is so great that nothing - including light - can escape them.

According to Dr Robert Massy, of the Royal Astronomical Society, the results suggest that galaxies form around giant black holes in the way that a pearl forms around grit.

'The black pearl'

Dr Massy said: "Although we think of black holes as somehow threatening, in the sense that if you get too close to one you are in trouble, they may have had a role in helping galaxies to form - not just our own, but all galaxies.


The most spectacular aspect of our 16-year study, is that it has delivered what is now considered to be the best empirical evidence that super-massive black holes do exist
Professor Reinhard Genzel
Head of the research team

"They had a role in bringing matter together and if you had a high enough density of matter then you have the conditions in which stars could form.

"Thus the first generation of stars and galaxies could have come into existence".

The researchers from the Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany said the black hole was 27,000 light years, or 158 thousand, million, million miles from the Earth.

"Undoubtedly the most spectacular aspect of our 16-year study, is that it has delivered what is now considered to be the best empirical evidence that super-massive black holes do really exist," said Professor Reinhard Genzel, head of the research team.

"The stellar orbits in the galactic centre show that the central mass concentration of four million solar masses must be a black hole, beyond any reasonable doubt."

old news buddy where have you been gosh. and actually its not just a balck hole its a super massive black hole (yes this is real i am not making it up) which is at least 10x bigger than a normal one

oops didn't read all the way through

lol, im just posting news as i found them, and its pretty awesome though.

I still want to know why they are called black holes if they are so massive and dense. I mean can't we come up with a more accurate term? Also, Stephen Hawking has proved this several times Years before this study even started, so...way to catch up there scientific team?

i think we call them black holes because we cant see them like being blind in the dark, hence the black. and the hole part comes from mr. einestien in the theory (ya know the whole trough gravity thingy in space) that a black hole is so dense it punctures a hole in space

But it doesn't puncture a hole in space it makes a gravity sink. ALSO, we are able to see them quite easily in several spectrums so the idea of black doesn't really apply. Now Dark matter I can see being called a black hole.

*sigh* No scientists on this forum...