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 found evidence for
00:22a lone black hole about 5,000 light years away wandering through interstellar space.
00:27Black holes roaming our galaxy are born from rare monstrous stars less than 1,000th of the
00:35galaxy's stellar population that are many times more massive than our sun. These stars die in
00:41supernova explosions. Their core is crushed by the star's own gravity into a black hole.
00:47Because the detonation is asymmetrical, the black hole may get a kick, sending it careening through
00:53our galaxy. Hubble detected the magnified and deflected light from a star lined up exactly
01:01behind the potential black hole as its intense gravity warps space itself. The measurements
01:08indicate the black hole weighs seven solar masses and is traveling through space at 100,000 miles per
01:15hour. But don't worry, there's a lot of space between Earth and this roaming black hole.