Is There a There There?

Despite their name "black holes" in space are not the absence of something.

They are collapsed stars so incredibly dense that not even light can escape their gravity (Random Joe Biden joke). Because any light or radiation they emit is captured in the gravity well of the collapsed star we can't actually see them, and we never will. We can only see the effects as matter or energy cross into that gravity well at a border called the "event horizon."

Astronomers working at an observatory in Hawaii -- a thought which makes me wish I had taken that so-called Mickey-Mouse astronomy course I had in college much more seriously -- have found evidence of two "supermassive" black holes in our neighborhood, so to speak. Our sun's mass equals .0000000001 percent of either of these two phenomena (Random Ron Paul's chances of winning presidential nomination joke).

Supermassive black holes are usually found at the centers of galaxies -- because there are stars near them which their gravity affects and we can see those effects. But a supermassive black hole outside of a galaxy center is tougher to detect, because over time its intense gravity has sucked everything nearby into itself (Random Newt Gingrich and GOP primary joke).

So are there other supermassive black holes relatively close by? Maybe even close enough that as our solar system moves through the galaxy, it might be seduced by their saucy gravitational pull and begin a slow, steady journey towards their event horizons and certain disaster (Random President Obama second term joke)?

Only time will tell.