The possibility of sending a tiny spacecraft to a nearby black hole has sparked excitement among astrophysicists. Cosimo Bambi, an expert on black holes, has outlined the blueprint for such a mission in the journal iScience. If successful, this century-long journey could revolutionize our understanding of physics and the laws governing space and time.

Bambi believes that with advancements in technology, it’s not entirely impossible to achieve this feat. The first challenge lies in finding a black hole close enough to target. Previous knowledge suggests there might be one lurking 20-25 light-years from Earth, but detecting it won’t be easy due to their invisible nature. Instead, scientists study them by observing the effects they have on nearby stars or distortions in light.

New techniques for discovering black holes may lead to finding a nearby one within the next decade. Once identified, the next hurdle is getting there with a spacecraft that can withstand the journey. Bambi proposes using nanocrafts – gram-scale probes consisting of a microchip and light sail – accelerated by Earth-based lasers to a third of the speed of light.

At this pace, the craft could reach a black hole 20-25 light-years away in about 70 years, with data gathering taking another two decades to get back to Earth. This would make the total mission duration around 80-100 years. Upon reaching the black hole, researchers can run experiments to answer pressing questions like: does it truly have an event horizon? Do the rules of physics change near a black hole? And does Einstein’s theory of general relativity hold under extreme conditions?

Bambi acknowledges that creating such a spacecraft is currently beyond our capabilities and would require significant advancements in technology. However, with advancements in funding and technological progress over the next 30 years, he believes it may be possible to make this vision a reality.

As Bambi notes, people once thought detecting gravitational waves or observing black hole shadows was impossible, but we achieved those milestones within a century. This work highlights the power of human ingenuity and our relentless pursuit of understanding the universe’s secrets.

The discovery of a star that survived an encounter with a supermassive black hole and came back for more has left astronomers stunned. For decades, scientists have observed spectacular flares caused by stars falling onto these cosmic monsters, only to be destroyed in the process. However, a team of researchers from Tel Aviv University has made a groundbreaking finding: one such flare, named AT 2022dbl, was repeated nearly two years after its initial occurrence, suggesting that at least part of the star survived.

Led by Dr. Lydia Makrygianni and Prof. Iair Arcavi, the study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters reveals that this flare might not have been a full stellar disruption as previously thought. Instead, it could be a result of the partial destruction of the star, with much of its material surviving to come back for a second, nearly identical passage.

The implications of this finding are significant. If future flares from the same location occur at regular intervals, it would suggest that these events might not be one-off occurrences but rather part of a more complex and dynamic process. “This discovery upends conventional wisdom about such tidal disruption events,” says Prof. Arcavi. “We’ll have to re-write our interpretation of these flares and what they can teach us about the monsters lying in the centers of galaxies.”

The study’s findings also challenge long-held assumptions about black holes, which are notoriously difficult to study due to their complete darkness. By observing the aftermath of a star’s encounter with a supermassive black hole, scientists have gained valuable insights into these enigmatic objects.

As researchers continue to investigate this phenomenon, they may uncover even more secrets about the complex interactions between stars and supermassive black holes. The question now is: will we see a third flare after two more years, in early 2026?

The mysteries of black holes have long been shrouded in an aura of mystery. These cosmic monsters are capable of warping space and time around them, creating regions from which nothing – not even light – can escape. However, recent research has revealed that these enigmatic entities also possess a hidden harmony, a “singing” quality that scientists are only now beginning to understand.

Quasinormal modes, as they’re called, are the ripples in space-time produced by disturbances around black holes. These vibrations can be strong enough to detect from Earth, offering a unique opportunity to measure a black hole’s mass and shape. However, calculating these vibrations through theoretical methods has proven a major challenge, particularly for those that rapidly weaken.

A team of researchers at Kyoto University has developed a new method for calculating the vibrations of black holes using the exact Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin (WKB) analysis. This mathematical technique involves extending space near the black hole into the complex number domain, revealing a rich structure of the black hole’s geometry.

The research team found that this approach allowed them to follow wave patterns in great detail, even in regions difficult to analyze with other existing methods. They incorporated complex features such as Stokes curves, which designate where the nature of a wave suddenly changes, into their analysis. The findings revealed that the team had succeeded in developing a method that systematically and precisely captures the frequency structure of rapidly weakening vibrations.

This breakthrough makes it possible to analyze the “ringing sounds” of black holes across a wide range of theoretical models. Ultimately, this may help improve the precision of future gravitational wave observations and lead to a deeper understanding of the true nature of our Universe and its geometry. The research team plans to extend their approach to rotating black holes and explore the application of exact WKB analysis in studies related to quantum gravity effects.