Blazing Like 10 Billion Suns: NASA’s Swift Sees a Wandering Black Hole Devouring a Star
Researchers used a new search method to confirm one of the rarest cosmic events, with the black hole radiating about 10 billion suns at peak.
- NASA researchers identified an 'orphan' supermassive black hole consuming a star about 750 million light-years from Earth, located roughly 30,000 light-years from its host galaxy's center.
- Astronomers typically locate supermassive black holes in galactic cores where they reside, but this 'orphan' sits unusually far from the galactic center, marking the first confirmed event at such a great distance from a galaxy.
- The Zwicky Transient Facility detected the flare in November 2025, while NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory measured the event's temperature at about 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit and confirmed the black hole weighs roughly 1 million times the Sun.
- Future tools including the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will expand the search zone across 9 billion years of cosmic history, enabling detection of many more wandering black holes.
- Theories suggest the black hole originated from a violent collision between galaxies, which may have flung it toward the periphery, helping scientists understand how galaxies and their supermassive black holes merge and evolve over time.
21 Articles
21 Articles
NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory detected a supermassive black hole in the Earth that devoured a star on the periphery of a galaxy over 750 million light-years away.
Astronomers Spot Wandering Supermassive Black Hole Far From Its Galaxy’s Heart
Astronomers have discovered a dormant supermassive black hole 30,000 light-years from the center of WISEA J014656.04-152214.7 -- a massive galaxy located about 750 million light-years away in the constellation of Cetus -- after it briefly lit up by tearing apart a star. The post Astronomers Spot Wandering Supermassive Black Hole Far From Its Galaxy’s Heart appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.
NASA Captures Rare ‘Orphan’ Black Hole Devouring Star Outside Galaxy Core | 🔬 LatestLY
NASA has discovered a rare 'orphan' black hole devouring a star more than 30,000 light-years from its host galaxy's centre, marking the first optical tidal disruption event detected so far outside a galactic core. Scientists say the breakthrough could help uncover hidden wandering supermassive black holes and reshape how astronomers study the universe. 🔬 NASA Captures Rare ‘Orphan’ Black Hole Devouring Star Outside Galaxy Core.
Sazunov said that "the theory of quantum gravity, which may help explain the infinity of the black hole, is still at the initial stage." He added: "In accordance with current perceptions, all that falls into the black hole eventually reaches a central point, where the intensity, gravity and space-turning are theoretically supposed to become infinite." The world explained that "this is creating some kind of overlap between the concepts of time an…
A Wandering Black Hole Meets a Wandering Star
What happens when a black hole and a star meet in the middle of nowhere in a galaxy? It sounds like it could be a dramatic science fiction backdrop, with some hapless starship caught in the crunch. Actually, such encounters in real life are pretty rare. They happen maybe once every 100,000 years. But, when they do occur, the immense gravity of the supermassive black hole tears the star apart. It's an eerie-looking process. The star gets "spaghet…
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