Black sphere near a glowing sphere

Black Holes

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.

Artist's impression of black hole binary

Black Holes

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.

a black dot at the center of a swirl of pink, purple, orange, grey, and other colors

Black Holes

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.

a large flat purple and gold disc in front of an orange orb on a black background

Black Holes

Black Hole Spins Crookedly

Astronomers have found a black hole leaning decidedly askew in its orbit with a star.

Stellar-mass black hole with accretion disk and jet

Black Holes

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.

Cygnus X-1

Black Holes

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.

Star orbiting black hole

Black Holes

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.

Artist's concept of MAXI J1820+070

Black Holes

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.

X-ray binaries around galactic center (art)

Milky Way

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.

Black hole accretion disk + jet

Black Holes

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.