Black Holes May Be the Missing Piece of Star Cluster Puzzle

Hundreds of black holes could be lurking inside a cluster of stars that orbits the Milky Way galaxy, a new study shows. NGC 6101 is a globular cluster (a dense, spherical collection of ancient stars) orbiting the center of the Milky Way. Using computer models, scientists recently showed that some strange characteristics of NGC 6101 could be explained by the presence of hundreds of black holes — something scientists have never observed in a globular cluster.