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Article: Exploring the black hole.
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- September 7, 1991
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1991 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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AS SOON as theoretical physicists dreamed up the idea, astronomers began hunting the sky for black holes. Now it looks as though they hardly had to bother. Today's telescopes see more distant galaxies than nearby stars-billions of them are visible. it is quite possible that in every one of them lurks a huge black hole. The Milky Way-a galaxy of 100 billion stars which matters to astronomers only because one of those stars is the earth's sun-is no exception.
To a cynic, this may look like another attempt by the theoretical camp to annex part of the universe to its own ends; theorists always like to find homes for their latest exotic and unobserved pets, be they ...