New research suggests that a ball of dark matter, rather than a black hole, may lie at the heart of the Milky Way. Astronomers propose that a dense core made of dark matter particles known as fermions creates a gravitational pull nearly identical to that of a supermassive black hole. This theory successfully explains the paths of stars orbiting the center of our galaxy.

The model also fits other key data, including the rotation of the galaxy’s outer edges measured by the GAIA satellite and the shadow captured by the Event Horizon Telescope. Researchers believe this single framework for dark matter could explain both the center of the galaxy and its overall shape. However, scientists say more observations are still required to prove the theory.