Imagine the Sun was orbiting a black hole, perhaps spiraling into it. The idea that an ordinary star like our Sun could fall into such a trap It sounds like the plot from a science fiction movie. Indeed, of the 20 or so black holes known to astronomers none threaten a sun-like star.
Instead, they tend to be tightly bound to their companion stars while stripping them of matter, which glows brightly as it accelerates towards its gravitational fate.
That is why these black holes are bright sources of x-rays. This brightness is also how astronomers have spotted them so easily.
But astronomers have long thought there could be a more insidious population of black hole binary systems that are not glowing brightly and so remain hidden. If so, then the latest generation of orbiting observatories might be able to spot them.
Now Kareem El-Badry at the Harvard & Smithsonian ...
