Astronomers have detected a mid-infrared flare from the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy for the very first time, and it’s shedding new light on the complex physics driving these energetic outbursts.

The universe could be home to far more supermassive black holes than we realised, according to new research. Astronomers from the University of Southampton say that 35% of these galactic giants - some which are billions of times heavier than the sun - have gone undiscovered because they are obscured by thick clouds of gas and dust.

Sagittarius A* is the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. As supermassive black holes go, it is fairly quiet. It’s not creating any galaxy-wide tantrums that should worry us. It does flare up though,

Most picture the night sky as an endless sea of twinkling stars. But if your eyes could see the universe in X-rays, you’d spot thousands upon thousands of bright points representing giant black holes feeding on gas and dust.

For years, the estimated number of hidden supermassive black holes hovered around 15 percent. This still means tens if not hundreds of billions in the visible universe. New work estimates that the number of supermassive black holes so entrenched in dust and gas that no X-ray light can escape is around 35 percent,

NASA's Chandra and NuSTAR telescopes have teamed up to study a supermassive black hole-powered quasar that could have played a key role in ending the cosmic dark ages.

According to scientists, there could be more black holes in the universe than previously thought. Researchers reckon astronomers could be missing between 30 per cent and 50 per cent of the feeding supermassive black holes,