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First glimpse of lone black hole delights astronomers

The invisible cosmic tourist could carry clues about supernova explosions.
  1. Elizabeth Gibney
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Lone black holes probably litter the Galaxy, but they’re extremely hard to spot. Now astronomers have, for the first time, seen an isolated black hole, wandering unattached across the Milky Way. Black holes are typically glimpsed as they interact with other objects, such as companion stars. Studying solo black holes — a separate class of cosmic object — should help scientists to understand how they form, and how abundant they are.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00346-6

References

  1. Sahu, K. C. et al. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2201.13296 (2022).

  2. Agol, E., Kamionkowski, M., Koopmans, L. V. E. & Blandford, R. D. Ap. J. 576 L131 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

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