
Wobbly Star Reveals the Closest Black Hole Yet
The most compelling dormant stellar-mass black hole candidate in the Milky Way orbits a Sun-like star only 1,570 light-years away.

A Black Hole Lurks in a Galaxy Near Our Own
Astronomers have found a dormant black hole orbiting a massive blue star in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.

Have We Found the First Rogue Black Hole in the Milky Way?
Hubble observations have revealed a stellar-mass compact object — a black hole or possibly a neutron star — wandering our galaxy.

Black Hole Spins Crookedly
Astronomers have found a black hole leaning decidedly askew in its orbit with a star.

Astronomers Watch Black Hole Jet Launch
Astronomers have watched a jet launch from a stellar-mass black hole, shedding light on how these structures form.

First-detected Black Hole is More Massive Than We Thought
A higher mass for Cygnus X-1, the first black hole to be discovered, challenges ideas about the evolution of massive stars.

Heavyweight Black Hole Find Mystifies Astronomers
Observations of a star have found it orbiting an unexpectedly massive black hole. If the discovery pans out, it would change our understanding of how massive stars die.

How “Light Echoes” Revealed a Black Hole’s Feeding Habits
Astronomers are taking a cue from bats, using a method similar to echolocation to map out the feeding environment around a black hole.

Our Galaxy's Center Might Hold Thousands of Black Holes
A new study has uncovered a dozen stellar-mass black holes within 3 light-years of the supermassive black hole at our galaxy’s core — and these might be just the tip of the iceberg.

Astronomers Decode a Black Hole Jet
Two telescopes — one on the ground and one in space — watched a black hole’s jet turn on, enabling astronomers to probe its origin.