Rogue Black Hole 5000 Light Years away - Hubble Finds Evidence
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
00:00 Though an estimated 100 million black holes roam our Milky Way galaxy, these objects are
00:05 invisible and so very difficult to detect.
00:10 Astronomers now believe they may have precisely measured the mass of an isolated black hole
00:14 for the first time.
00:16 After six years of observations, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope found evidence for a lone
00:22 black hole about 5,000 light-years away wandering through interstellar space.
00:28 Black holes roaming our galaxy are born from rare, monstrous stars, less than one thousandth
00:34 of the galaxy's stellar population, that are many times more massive than our Sun.
00:40 These stars die in supernova explosions.
00:43 Their core is crushed by the star's own gravity into a black hole.
00:48 Because the detonation is asymmetrical, the black hole may get a kick, sending it careening
00:53 through our galaxy.
00:56 Hubble detected the magnified and deflected light from a star lined up exactly behind
01:01 the potential black hole, as its intense gravity warps space itself.
01:07 The measurements indicate the black hole weighs seven solar masses and is traveling through
01:12 space at 100,000 miles per hour.
01:16 But don't worry, there's a lot of space between Earth and this roaming black hole.
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