---
title: "A “Dense Bullet of Something” Blasted Holes in the Milky Way"
description: "Something punched gigantic holes through the Milky Way. There's little evidence at the cosmic crime scene, but scientists suspect it was dark matter."
date: "2019-05-15"
modified: "2019-05-16"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski.md"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/bullet-holes-milky-way"
categories:
  - "Off-World"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "dark matter"
  - "space"
  - "the digest"
---

# A “Dense Bullet of Something” Blasted Holes in the Milky Way

![Something punched gigantic holes through the Milky Way. There's little evidence at the cosmic crime scene, but scientists suspect it was dark matter.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/bullet-holes-milky-way.png>)
*\<em\>Image: NASA/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Bullet Holes

Scientists say that something mysterious punched gigantic, cosmic "bullet holes" in parts of the Milky Way.

There's a string of holes in a long stream of stars called GD-1 that suggests that some [yet-undiscovered thing](<https://futurism.com/oxford-scientist-may-have-solved-mystery-dark-matter.md>) blasted its way through, [according to research](<https://www.livescience.com/65483-dark-impactor-could-be-dark-matter.html>) presented to the American Physical Society last month and first reported by *Live Science*. Harvard-Smithsonian astrophysicist Ana Bonaca, the scientist who discovered the cosmic crime scene, suspects that the gigantic "bullet holes" may have been carved out by [invisible dark matter](<https://futurism.com/stars-galaxies-dark-matter.md>).

## Whodunnit

Unfortunately, the culprit of this celestial shooting seems to have gotten away with it — Bonaca told *[Live Science](<https://www.livescience.com/65483-dark-impactor-could-be-dark-matter.html>)* that there's no evidence at the crime scene beyond the size of the gaps in the stellar stream.

"We can't map \[the impactor\] to any luminous object that we have observed," Bonaca told *Live Science*. "It's much more massive than a star… Something like a million times the mass of the Sun. So there are just no stars of that mass. We can rule that out. And if it were a black hole, it would be a supermassive black hole of the kind we find at the center of our own galaxy."

## Dark Hammer

Because there's no evidence of such a black hole, Bonaca suspects a [ball of dark matter](<https://futurism.com/dark-matter-conflicting-results.md>) may have crashed through the stars. But it's too early to definitively rule out any possibilities.

"It's a dense bullet of something," Bonaca said.

*Editor's note: this story has been updated to clarify that the research was first reported by Live Science.*

**READ MORE:** [Something Strange Punched a Hole in the Milky Way. But What Exactly Is It?](<https://www.livescience.com/65483-dark-impactor-could-be-dark-matter.html>) \[*Live Science*\]

**More on dark matter:** *[New Map of Dark Matter Breaks Scientists’ Understanding of Physics](<https://futurism.com/dark-matter-map-new-physics.md>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)

## More

- [New NASA Measurements: Milky Way Galaxy Is “On the Beefier Side”](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-milky-way-beefier-side.md>)
- [Something Strange Appears to Be Powering “Immortal” Stars at the Center of Our Galaxy](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/stars-galaxy-dark-matter.md>)
- [Black Holes May Be Engulfed In Dark Matter, Scientists Find](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/black-holes-engulfed-dark-matter-scientists.md>)
- [The Object at the Core of the Milky Way Might Not Be a Black Hole at All, Scientists Say](<https://futurism.com/future-society/black-hole-milky-way-dark-matter.md>)
- [New Paper Says Black Holes Could Be as Large as an Entire Galaxy](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/black-holes-size-entire-galaxy.md>)
- [New Theory: Dark Matter Black Holes Are Detonating Stars](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/dark-matter-black-holes-detonating-stars.md>)
- [MIT: Dark Matter At Our Galaxy’s Core May Be Blasting Gamma Rays](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/mit-milky-way-dark-matter-gamma-rays.md>)
- [A Jupiter-Sized Black Hole is Floating Around The Milky Way](<https://futurism.com/jupiter-black-hole-milky-way.md>)