For years, scientists have puzzled over a strange cosmic absence: the region near the Milky Way’s central black hole is eerily void of massive young stars. Now, a new astrophysical study may have uncovered the answer — and it points to a hidden population of destructive forces shaping the core of our galaxy.
A research team led by scientists from Charles University in Czechia, in collaboration with colleagues in Germany, believes they have identified the culprits: an enormous pack of black holes that have likely been tearing these stars apart before they can fully form or survive.
Their findings, which will soon appear in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, present a grim reality: some stars never stand a chance near Sagittarius A*, the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole.
The curious case of the vanishing O-type stars
The problem begins with a mismatch. According to established stellar formation models, massive O-type stars — some of the brightest and most short-lived stars in the galaxy — should be found in the inner regions of the Milky Way. Yet, within a tenth of a light-year from Sagittarius A*, these luminous giants are entirely absent.
Instead, astronomers consistently find smaller B-type stars in that zone. While still large and young by stellar standards, B-type stars are less massive and longer-lived than their O-type counterparts. This imbalance had long been a mystery — until now.
“The smaller B-stars can survive much longer, in fact for some 50 million years,” explained Jaroslav Haas, lead author and astrophysicist at Charles University.
The team’s analysis suggests that the region around Sagittarius A* may be acting as a stellar gauntlet. Only the more resilient stars can persist. The larger O-type stars, despite their power, live fast and burn out early — or are destroyed altogether.
A hidden threat at the galactic core
The study posits that a densely packed cluster of stellar-mass black holes is responsible for this selective destruction. These black holes — remnants of earlier massive stars — are believed to orbit in large numbers around the galactic center. Their collective gravitational influence could be disrupting star formation and shredding larger stars before they stabilize.
“These results give us an entirely new understanding of the immediate surroundings of the central super-massive black hole,” said coauthor and astrophysicist Pavel Kroupa.
This swarm of black holes may also explain why many B-type stars near the core appear to be accelerating away at extreme speeds — the result of chaotic gravitational interactions.
Surprisingly, the team also discovered that the density of black holes increases up to a certain distance from Sagittarius A* before declining, rather than peaking at the very center as once assumed.
“It’s the result of the complicated dynamical processes near the central super-massive black hole,” said Ladislav Šubr, director of the Astronomical Institute at Charles University. “Our findings will allow us to run new simulations to better understand these interactions.”
Implications for galactic evolution
If confirmed, this research could reshape our understanding of how matter behaves in galactic nuclei. It suggests that central regions of galaxies may not only be sites of intense gravity, but also of ongoing destruction.
This destructive environment may be a feature of galaxies far beyond our own. As observational technology advances, scientists hope to detect similar patterns in other galactic cores — and further unravel the interplay between black holes and stellar populations.
Future observations with next-generation instruments such as the James Webb Space Telescope and the Extremely Large Telescope could provide direct evidence of these hidden black holes or reveal the aftermath of their work. For now, astronomers are running detailed simulations to test just how destructive this dark swarm might be.
