The Hubble Space Telescope has found evidence of a "wandering" black hole about 5000 light years away in the Milky Way galaxy. Astronomers estimate that there could be 100 million black holes wandering around our galaxy.
Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
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TechTranscript
00:00Though an estimated 100 million black holes roam our Milky Way galaxy,
00:05these objects are invisible and so very difficult to detect.
00:09Astronomers now believe they may have precisely measured the mass of an isolated black hole
00:14for the first time. After six years of observations, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope
00:21found evidence for a lone black hole about 5,000 light-years away wandering through interstellar
00:27space. Black holes roaming our galaxy are born from rare monstrous stars, less than one thousandth
00:35of the galaxy's stellar population, that are many times more massive than our sun.
00:40These stars die in supernova explosions. Their core is crushed by the star's own gravity into
00:46a black hole. Because the detonation is asymmetrical, the black hole may get a kick,
00:52sending it careening through our galaxy. Hubble detected the magnified and deflected light from
00:59a star lined up exactly behind the potential black hole as its intense gravity warps space itself.
01:07The measurements indicate the black hole weighs seven solar masses and is traveling through space
01:13at 100,000 miles per hour. But don't worry, there's a lot of space between Earth and this
01:20roaming black hole.