Artist’s impression of globular star cluster

Globular clusters are dense bundles of thousands to millions of old stars, and many scientists have doubted that black holes could survive in such an exclusive environment.

Computer simulations show that a newly formed black hole would first sink towards the centre of the cluster but quickly get gravitationally slingshot out entirely when interacting with the cluster's myriad stars.

New XMM-Newton findings provided the first convincing evidence that some black hole might not only survive but grow and flourish in globular clusters.