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Space

Vanishing matter points to black hole in Milky Way

By David Shiga

29 April 2009

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

The centre of the Milky Way, as seen from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. New evidence strongly suggests that there is a black hole lurking in there

(Image: Q D Wang et al / UMass Amherst / CXC / NASA)

MATTER and energy are vanishing without a trace at the centre of the Milky Way, providing the best evidence so far that a black hole is lurking there.

Falling into a black hole is a one-way trip – once matter or light crosses a threshold called the event horizon, it can never escape. While astronomers have identified many dark, dense objects…

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