Artist's Illustration of Black Hole Moving Through Milky Way
The yellow line in this illustration depicts the orbital path of a black hole (known as XTE J1118+480) and its companion through the Milky Way after being liberated from a globular cluster some 7 billion year ago. The bright dot indicates the Sun's current position. Simulations of the gravitational interactions in globular star clusters have shown that the black holes resulting from the collapse of the most massive stars -- and any companion stars they may have captured - may eventually be ejected from the cluster.
(Credit: STScI/A.Feild/Office of Public Outreach)