Isophoric News · Sunday, October 18, 2026
Astronomers ask the public to help find "missing" black holes in the Milky Way
Astronomers estimate the Milky Way has produced more than 10 million black holes over its 13-billion-year history but have found only 70, and a project led from the University of Southampton is asking the public to help find more, Space.com reported. Volunteers on the Zooniverse platform sift through data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, flagging patterns that could mean a black hole is magnifying a companion star's light; project co-lead Adam McMaster said it requires "no expertise." Each graph is shown to several volunteers and their answers are combined, according to the project's website, which says nearly 23,000 volunteers have completed more than 12 million classifications since October 2021. An earlier search using ground-based data is still being analyzed, with results expected soon.
