The Milky Way Is Full Of High-Speed Black Holes

It seems that about three-thirds of black holes are kicked out of their home when they are born. After being kicked out they hurtle through the galaxy at a speed that can exceed 70 kph. Doesn't that sound just fun?

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As if it isn't enough that black holes are dark, mysterious, numerous and they crush everything with their immense gravity. Now it seems that these galactic monsters fly through the galaxy at high speeds. And the best part, when a black hole is moving through the empty void between the stars, it is really hard to find. Even when they are pretty close. Isn't the Universe just a great place to live in?

Pikky Atri and her colleagues from the Australian Curtin University and International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) concluded that if a black hole is born in a supernova explosion it may get kicked out at a speed that may exceed 70 kph. They even made a great for this – a natal kick.

The researchers studied 16 black holes in binary systems where each of the black holes has a partner. This is because in such systems it is possible to observe them, even though only indirectly. In such systems, the black hole is violently eating up matter that rotates around the black hole. This makes the black hole to intensively radiate x-rays and radio-waves. All of this allows us to observe the behavior of the black hole and thus reconstruct its previous evolution.

Black holes aren't the only thing that can be born of a supernova explosion. We knew for some time already that neutron stars can get kicked out of their homes at birth but we weren't sure if it is the same case for black holes. Now, after a detailed analysis of the chosen binary systems, the scientists concluded that 12 out of the 16 studied black holes are moving through space at high speeds and most likely went through a kicking out.

We estimate that there are roughly 10 million black holes in our galaxy. If the numbers correct for the average that would mean roughly 7.5 million black holes are hurtling at high speeds through our galaxy. Hopefully, none of them are coming our way anytime soon.

Sources:

• https://arxiv.org/abs/1908.07199
• https://www.sciencealert.com/there-could-be-a-whole-bunch-of-high-speed-black-holes-zooming-around-the-galaxy

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