An illustration of a sun-like star orbiting a black hole. (Image credit: Robert Lea (created with Canva))

Astronomers estimate that our home galaxy, the Milky Way, has churned out more than 10 million black holes over its 13-billion-year history. Yet so far, they have found only 70.

Now, a group of astronomers in the U.K. is trying to close that vast gap by enlisting the public. Their project, called Black Hole Hunters , is looking for volunteers with a computer and a few spare minutes to sift through troves of data gathered by a NASA space telescope. By flagging recognizable patterns that could point to a "missing" black hole , volunteers can help fast-track a search that would otherwise take years, the team says.

"You'll be narrowing down precisely where we need to point our telescopes next," project co-lead Adam McMaster, an astronomer at the University of Southampton in the U.K., said in a statement , "and you might be the one to discover a black hole."

Cosmic magnifying glasses

Black holes form…