Astronomers Find First-Ever Rogue Black Hole Adrift in the Milky Way

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February 03, 2022

Dear Reader, This week, we're looking for black cats hiding in a darkened room. Well, not really, but that's close to what a certain subset of astronomers have been doing in their decades-long search for black holes wandering between the stars. Our best models of how black holes are born predict that some simply must be ejected at high speed from their natal environs, to drift alone forevermore through the void. But being, well, black and rather small, none of these cosmic nomads has ever conclusively been found. Until now, that is—as detailed in our lead story about the first unambiguous discovery of a free-floating black hole. Elsewhere, we have coverage of a nuclear-fusion milestone, the eventual demise of the International Space Station, a newfound asteroid hitchhiking alongside Earth and more.

Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Space & Physics @LeeBillings

Black Holes Astronomers Find First-Ever Rogue Black Hole Adrift in the Milky Way Weighing in at seven times the mass of our sun, the dark object is by far the best-yet candidate for a free-floating stellar-mass black hole By Jonathan O'Callaghan

Renewable Energy U.S. Project Reaches Major Milestone toward Practical Fusion Power In a world first, the National Ignition Facility has generated a "burning plasma," a fusion reaction on the cusp of being self-sustaining By Philip Ball

Quantum Physics Does Quantum Mechanics Reveal That Life Is But a Dream? A radical quantum hypothesis casts doubt on objective reality By John Horgan

Astronomy How Measuring Time Shaped History From Neolithic constructions to atomic clocks, how humans measure time reveals what we value most By Clara Moskowitz

Space Exploration NASA Plans a Fiery End for the International Space Station by 2031 The space agency has announced the timing of the ISS's demise as part of a long-planned transition to private orbital outposts By Mike Wall,SPACE.com

Planetary Science Earth Has a New Asteroid Companion, but Not for Long The Trojan asteroid 2020 XL5 is projected to linger in our planet's vicinity for the next 4,000 years By Chelsea Gohd,SPACE.com

Space Exploration Moon's Hidden Depths Uncovered with New Algorithm The permanently shadowed regions at the lunar poles might contain thick ice reservoirs By Connie Chang

FROM THE STORE Scientific American Space & Physics, Volume 5, Issue 1

QUOTE OF THE DAY "It's super exciting. We can actually prove that isolated black holes are there." Marina Rejkuba, astronomer at the European Southern Observatory

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FROM THE ARCHIVE NASA's 'Nuclear Option' May Be Crucial for Getting Humans to Mars After decades of false starts, a new push for nuclear-powered rocketry could make or break the space agency's plans to send astronauts to the Red Planet By David W. Brown | January 2022

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