Black holes are very massive and are the key celestial bodies in the universe. So how many black holes are there in the universe? According to the current observation data, astronomers infer that about 1% of matter in the universe is bound in black holes. In addition to the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy, there may be millions of undiscovered black holes in space near the earth.
Every galaxy usually has only one supermassive black hole: according to astronomers' calculations, the mass of black holes in the universe is about one tenth that of stars. Supermassive black holes account for most of the mass.
Supermassive black holes are very rare. Usually, supermassive black holes exist only in the center of galaxies. If galaxies collide, supermassive black holes will briefly form binary systems, and finally collide and merge to form larger supermassive black holes.
With the growth of black holes, black holes will devour more and more matter, and the proportion of black holes in the universe will also increase.
How are black holes formed? Ordinary black holes often need to become stars to form.
With the development of nuclear fusion inside a star, the star will rapidly expand into a red giant. When the core of a star produces metal due to nuclear fusion, the red giant will collapse due to its own gravity. According to the original mass of the star, the collapse may form a black hole. But supermassive black holes can't be formed like this, so astronomers generally believe that supermassive black holes were mainly formed in the early universe.
In the early days of the universe, matter and energy were very dense. In an environment with unusually concentrated material energy, black holes can be born directly without a constant week, and quickly devour the surrounding materials and become supermassive black holes.
At present, the supermassive black holes observed by scientists are basically black holes formed when the universe was born. Ordinary black holes are formed by the gradual evolution of stars.
By understanding the proportion of black holes in the universe, astronomers can roughly infer the proportion of stars in the universe. Larger stars can form black holes, while small and medium-sized stars can only produce neutron stars or white dwarfs.
Every black hole is a massive star, which helps scientists understand the proportion of stars in the universe and get the number of stars extinguished in the Milky Way every year, thus helping humans understand their living environment.
Every 3.26 million light years, there are about 6.5438+million black holes. According to the big data of the universe, there are about 50 million black holes with solar mass in the universe within 3.26 million light years, and the average mass of each black hole is five times that of the sun, so there are about 6.5438+million black holes within 3.26 million light years.
This shows that black holes are actually very common in the universe. Whenever we see 10 stars, we may see a black hole. However, black holes do not produce light like stars, so even if we see black holes, they blend in with the dark background of the universe.
The mass ratio of black holes in the universe is only 1% (including dark matter), which also shows that the universe is still in a very early stage, and black holes do not bind too much cosmic mass.
With the development of the universe, more and more stars will evolve into black holes, and at the same time, black holes will devour more cosmic mass, and eventually black holes will become the main celestial bodies in the universe. By then, the universe will be darker and the birth of life will be more difficult.