By extracting a sample of Milky-Way-mass galaxies from the simulation, the researchers were able to determine that any galaxy roughly the mass of the Milky Way, regardless of its recent merger history or morphology, likely contains about a dozen supermassive black holes, with roughly five being located within 30,000 light-years of the galaxy’s center. Although this slew of meandering SMBHs may seem intimidating (especially considering they roam for at least a few billion years), according to the study, they pose little threat to our tiny corner of the cosmos.“It is extremely unlikely that any wandering supermassive black hole will come close enough to our Sun to have any impact on our solar system,” said lead author Michael Tremmel, a postdoctoral fellow at the Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, in a press release . “We estimate that a close approach of one of these wanderers that is able to affect our solar system should occur every 100 billion years or so, or nearly 10 times the age of the universe.”So, even though the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way may have a dozen disenfranchised siblings, by the time they could pose a threat to Earth, the Sun will have likely already burnt out. In the meantime, astronomers will continue working hard to definitely prove these wandering Goliaths actually exist. And once they do, the real fun can begin.A preprint of the new study is available on arxiv.org