Hundreds of Rogue Black Holes May Roam Milky Way

[Astronuc]

Hundreds of "Rogue" Black Holes May Roam Milky Way
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/080110-black-holes.html

Newly merged black holes might be so jarred by the experience that they go "rogue," careening into space on unexpected trajectories.

In fact, hundreds of these rogue black holes could exist in the Milky Way galaxy alone, according to a new study.

The research is just one of several new findings on black holes presented Wednesday at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas.
. . . .
Scientists at the presentation, for instance, offered up new explanations about odd x-ray sources coming from black holes.

They also found hints that dark matter may play an important role in the hot disks that form around companion-consuming black holes.
. . . .

Astronomers have long known about rogue black holes? How long? Is this a new revelation about DM and BHs?

 

[Chronos]

'Hundreds' of rogue black holes in our galaxy? So where are they [Fermi thing]? I doubt we are at risk.

 

[encorp]

'Hundreds' of rogue black holes in our galaxy? So where are they [Fermi thing]? I doubt we are at risk.

Haha I can see the news article now.

"There is a black hole careening towards earth."

Oh my what would we do? lol

 

[Philosophaie]

It is not uncommon for a star to implode and become a black hole. It happens all the time. Why not in our galaxy.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Society lives by faith, and develops by science.

 

[dwaring28720]

It is not uncommon for a star to implode and become a black hole. It happens all the time. Why not in our galaxy.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Society lives by faith, and develops by science.

i fully agree with you there, given the timespan that the milky way has been active and the average lifespam of a star of the size needed to become a black hole, the numbers of black holes predicted in our galaxy are enormous, for research now to suggest that we have hundreds of "rogue" black holes roaming around isn't surprising, as for us being in any sort of risk or running into one, well, i wouldn't like to take them odds! the galaxy is a very big place.

 

[Chronos]

Hundreds of 'rogue' black holes in our galaxy is not an alarming number - something on the order of less than 1 per hundred million stars.

 

[Astronuc]

It occurs to me that the precursors to rogue BH are rogue stars. So what proportion of stars are rogue? Does that vary with location in the galaxy, e.g., halo vs disk/arms vs nucleus (central bulge)?

Rogue Stars: The Miscreants of Our Galaxy
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080129-st-rogue-stars.html

Hubble Catches Heavyweight Runaway Star Speeding from 30 Doradus
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2010/14/full/

http://news.discovery.com/space/hubble-spies-trailblazing-star-ripped-from-stellar-nursery.html

Somewhat related

A young undergraduate named Marianne Heida was just combing through the Chandra Source Catalog, when she noticed a supermassive black hole that appeared to be leaving its home galaxy at very high speed, despite its mass of well over 1 billion Suns.

http://news.discovery.com/space/rogue-stars-non-constant-constants-holes-in-space-our-universe-is-rebelling.html

 

[Chronos]

Actually rogue black holes may be more plentiful than ordinary rogue stars due to gravitational recoil. But, stellar collisions of any kind are extremely rare. It is estimated they occur no more than once every 10 million years in this galaxy.