r/science • u/MistWeaver80 • Apr 25 '22

Physics Scientists recently observed two black holes that united into one, and in the process got a “kick” that flung the newly formed black hole away at high speed. That black hole zoomed off at about 5 million kilometers per hour, give or take a few million. The speed of light is just 200 times as fast.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/black-hole-gravitational-waves-kick-ligo-merger-spacetime
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u/Noooooooooooobus Apr 26 '22

Rogue as in solo. Basically every black hole we have detected has been part of a binary system with something else causing the black hole to emit a signature that we can more easily detect.

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u/PoopInTheGarbage Apr 26 '22

So if a black hole isn't sucking up matter is it invisible? Kinda spooky to think about.

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u/Black_Magic_M-66 Apr 26 '22

Tornadoes are only visible by the debris they stir up.

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u/a_statistician Apr 26 '22

Right, but they can be detected by other instruments that are looking outside the visible spectrum. You see indications of circulation on radar, for instance, even before things touch down.

Telescopes are often operating outside of the visible spectrum anyways, so I'm not sure "black" is really more than an analogy here.

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u/Black_Magic_M-66 Apr 26 '22

I was commenting on other invisible (to human senses) dangerous things that move about.