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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Photo: Hundreds of "Rogue" Black Holes May Roam Milky Way


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A pair of artist's conceptions shows the disk of material around the binary star system WZ Sge, which consists of a white dwarf pulling material from a cooler companion.

According to a previous model (left), the disk contained only visible material. But new findings suggest the presence of an asymmetric outer disk of dark matter (right).

The research is just one of several new findings presented at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society that are helping to unravel the mysteries of black holes.

Image by P. Marenfeld and NOAO/AURA/NSF