Giant black holes may be lurking “like monsters under your bed” behind smokescreens in our cosmic back yard, scientists have said.

Astronomers have discovered evidence of supermassive black holes at the centre of two of our galactic neighbours.

In each case the powerful black hole is concealed behind clouds of gas and dust. Scientists now believe most large galaxies have supermassive black holes at their cores, but many are hidden from view.

Massive Black Hole Shreds Passing Star

Nasa unveils space tourism posters Show all 6 1 /6 Nasa unveils space tourism posters Nasa unveils space tourism posters Nasa space tourism posters Nasa's canny decision to commission sumptuous vintage-inspired posters by Seattle design firm Invisible Creature has firmly placed space travel back where it belongs: in the imagination of travellers Nasa Nasa unveils space tourism posters Nasa space tourism posters It is particularly fitting that the Nasa commission went to Don and Ryan Clark, who have been running Invisible Creature since 2006, undertaking projects for the likes of Nike and Target Nasa Nasa unveils space tourism posters Nasa space tourism posters "We were ecstatic, just because our grandfather was an illustrator at Nasa for 30 years," says Clark Nasa Nasa unveils space tourism posters Nasa space tourism posters The artwork harks back to the Jet Age-era posters commissioned by Howard Hughes' Trans World Airlines and its rival United in the 1950s and 1960s, when the work of David Klein (for TWA) and Stan Galli (for United) glamorised and essentially branded this new age of air travel Nasa Nasa unveils space tourism posters Nasa space tourism posters It doesn't matter that Nasa has no plans for a "Grand Tour" of Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus Nasa Nasa unveils space tourism posters Nasa space tourism posters If global travel is for daydreamers, going beyond the atmosphere is for true space cadets Nasa

One, the galaxy NGC 1448, is “just” 38 million light years from our own body of stars, the Milky Way. The other, IC 3639, is 170 million light years away. Both are classified as “active” galaxies that emit intense levels of radiation.

But they are still much too distant to pose any threat to Earth.

Black holes are places where gravity is so powerful that it traps light and distorts spacetime. They can only be detected from the last-gasp emissions of radiation from objects falling into them.

The hidden black holes were spotted by the NASA’s NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) orbiting observatory which is designed to see X-rays.

British researchers from the universities of Durham and Southampton conducted analysis of the NuSTAR data.

Astronomer Ady Annuar, from the University of Durham’s Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, said: “These black holes are relatively close to the Milky Way, but they have remained hidden from us until now.

“They're like monsters hiding under your bed.

“Their recent discoveries certainly call out the question of how many other supermassive black holes we are still missing, even in our nearby universe.”