Astronomers detect first potential ‘rogue’ black hole
We’ve seen plenty of black holes tearing material off a companion, but not sitting alone in space. Now, we might have spotted one.
Each second, a brand new baby black hole is born somewhere in the cosmos as a massive star collapses under its own weight.
But black holes themselves are invisible. Historically, astronomers have only been able to detect these stellar-mass black holes when they are acting on a companion.
Now, a team of scientists has made the first-ever confirmed detection of a stellar-mass black hole that’s completely alone. The discovery opens up the possibility of finding even more — an exciting prospect, considering there should be around 100 million such “rogue” black holes drifting through our galaxy unseen.