Latest news with #CosimoBambi
Yahoo
08-08-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
A Scientist's Plan to Visit a Black Hole in 100 Years Is Wild. It Might Also Work.
Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: It may be possible for a swarm of ultralight nanocrafts—propelled by a laser and traveling at a third of the speed of light—to make it to a black hole within about a century. For a spacecraft like that to reach a black hole in such a relatively short time, there would have to be a black hole 20-25 light-years from Earth, and none so close have been observed yet. Observing a black hole so close could answer questions that might warp the rules of physics. On April 10, 2019, a black hole broke the internet. The first-ever image of a black hole—starring the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy Messier 87—was published by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). In an equally impressive follow-up, our own galaxy's supermassive black hole (Sagittarius A*, sometimes shortened to Sag A*) would be imaged by EHT three years later. So, we can finally see these things. What we can't yet do is send a spacecraft to one. But astrophysicist Cosimo Bambi (from Fudan University in China) has a vision. He sees a visit to a black hole happening within the next century—if we can develop a spacecraft light enough to be shot through space by a laser beam, that is. While Sag A* is a staggering 26,000 light-years from Earth, and Gaia-BH1 (the closest known stellar-mass black hole) is 1,560 light-years away, they may not be our only visitation options. Bambi thinks there could possibly be a smaller black hole hiding as close as 20 to 25 light-years away. He may be (approximately) right. While 20 light-years may be something of a stretch, in 2023, a team of researchers from the University of Padua in Italy and the University of Barcelona in Spain found that there could be stellar-mass black holes as close to Earth as 150 light-years away. These alleged black holes are thought to exist in the Hyades open cluster—a horde of stars, close in age and chemical composition, held loosely together by their gravitational pull. When the team ran simulations that were supposed to end up matching the mass and size of the cluster, the only way they could reach those numbers was by including black holes. Whether these black holes actually exist, however, remains to be proven. They will be exceedingly difficult for telescopes to observe because, as their name implies, black holes emit no light. And stellar-mass black holes lack the massive accretion disks that made it possible to image the M87 black hole and Sag A*. On top of that, even if—as Bambi suggests in a study soon to be published in the journal iScience—the closest black holes are slightly further from us than 20-25 light years away, and hypothetically could be reached by a spacecraft traveling at the speed of light over a century and a half, there is still the issue of creating a spacecraft light and fast enough to trek over there. The proposal? Micro-spacecraft with light sails. These have been proposed as a way to observe distant objects up close before—the Breakthrough Starshot initiative is looking to send a swarm of nanocrafts to the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri. And those nanocrafts are similar to what Bambi is considering. No heavier than a paperclip, these tiny space probes with microchips on board will be attached to light sails propelled by a ground-based laser. Breakthrough Starshot is aiming for speeds of up to 100 million miles an hour (a third of the speed of light), and Bambi is pushing for about the same. Spacecraft traveling at a third of the speed of light would only take 70 years to reach a black hole 20 to 25 light-years away (and data beamed back from the mission will take another two decades to reach us). If there are none that close, their next port of call would be the Hyades cluster—a journey that would take at least 420 years. Now, none of this can be done before the technology is actually developed. But Bambi thinks that the lower costs and technological advancements needed for a nanocraft swarm may actually evolve within 30 years. 'It may sound really crazy, and in a sense closer to science fiction,' he said in a recent press release. 'But people said we'd never detect gravitational waves because they're too weak. We did—100 years later. People thought we'd never observe the shadows of black holes. 'Now, 50 years later, we have images of two.' You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Yahoo
07-08-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
A Scientist's Plan to Visit a Black Hole in 100 Years Is Wild. It Might Also Work.
Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: It may be possible for a swarm of ultralight nanocrafts—propelled by a laser and traveling at a third of the speed of light—to make it to a black hole within about a century. For a spacecraft like that to reach a black hole in such a relatively short time, there would have to be a black hole 20-25 light-years from Earth, and none so close have been observed yet. Observing a black hole so close could answer questions that might warp the rules of physics. On April 10, 2019, a black hole broke the internet. The first-ever image of a black hole—starring the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy Messier 87—was published by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). In an equally impressive follow-up, our own galaxy's supermassive black hole (Sagittarius A*, sometimes shortened to Sag A*) would be imaged by EHT three years later. So, we can finally see these things. What we can't yet do is send a spacecraft to one. But astrophysicist Cosimo Bambi (from Fudan University in China) has a vision. He sees a visit to a black hole happening within the next century—if we can develop a spacecraft light enough to be shot through space by a laser beam, that is. While Sag A* is a staggering 26,000 light-years from Earth, and Gaia-BH1 (the closest known stellar-mass black hole) is 1,560 light-years away, they may not be our only visitation options. Bambi thinks there could possibly be a smaller black hole hiding as close as 20 to 25 light-years away. He may be (approximately) right. While 20 light-years may be something of a stretch, in 2023, a team of researchers from the University of Padua in Italy and the University of Barcelona in Spain found that there could be stellar-mass black holes as close to Earth as 150 light-years away. These alleged black holes are thought to exist in the Hyades open cluster—a horde of stars, close in age and chemical composition, held loosely together by their gravitational pull. When the team ran simulations that were supposed to end up matching the mass and size of the cluster, the only way they could reach those numbers was by including black holes. Whether these black holes actually exist, however, remains to be proven. They will be exceedingly difficult for telescopes to observe because, as their name implies, black holes emit no light. And stellar-mass black holes lack the massive accretion disks that made it possible to image the M87 black hole and Sag A*. On top of that, even if—as Bambi suggests in a study soon to be published in the journal iScience—the closest black holes are slightly further from us than 20-25 light years away, and hypothetically could be reached by a spacecraft traveling at the speed of light over a century and a half, there is still the issue of creating a spacecraft light and fast enough to trek over there. The proposal? Micro-spacecraft with light sails. These have been proposed as a way to observe distant objects up close before—the Breakthrough Starshot initiative is looking to send a swarm of nanocrafts to the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri. And those nanocrafts are similar to what Bambi is considering. No heavier than a paperclip, these tiny space probes with microchips on board will be attached to light sails propelled by a ground-based laser. Breakthrough Starshot is aiming for speeds of up to 100 million miles an hour (a third of the speed of light), and Bambi is pushing for about the same. Spacecraft traveling at a third of the speed of light would only take 70 years to reach a black hole 20 to 25 light-years away (and data beamed back from the mission will take another two decades to reach us). If there are none that close, their next port of call would be the Hyades cluster—a journey that would take at least 420 years. Now, none of this can be done before the technology is actually developed. But Bambi thinks that the lower costs and technological advancements needed for a nanocraft swarm may actually evolve within 30 years. 'It may sound really crazy, and in a sense closer to science fiction,' he said in a recent press release. 'But people said we'd never detect gravitational waves because they're too weak. We did—100 years later. People thought we'd never observe the shadows of black holes. 'Now, 50 years later, we have images of two.' You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life? Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
07-08-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
An Astrophysicist Proposes We Send a Spacecraft to Visit a Black Hole
Black holes are some of the most mysterious objects in the Universe – a reputation not helped by the difficulty of studying them. Because these ultra-dense objects emit no light we can detect, we have to study them based on the effect they have on the space around them, from large distances across space-time. But there could be another way to get the skinny on these cosmic heavyweights. "I was looking for some completely new way to study black holes," astrophysicist Cosimo Bambi of Fudan University in China told ScienceAlert, "and I realized that an interstellar mission to the closest black hole is not unrealistic – but nobody had ever proposed it." Related: Physicists Simulated a Black Hole in The Lab, And Then It Began to Glow Black holes generate the strongest gravitational fields in the Universe, so strong that not even light is fast enough to achieve escape velocity from its powerful hold. Although we know a fair bit about how they behave, the measure of what we don't know about them is far greater than what we do. Additionally, the black hole gravitational regime would be one of the best in the Universe for testing general relativity, offering extreme conditions not found anywhere else that would really push the theory to its absolute limits. A probe orbiting a black hole would be able to perform tests, and take measurements of the black hole, that we can't do from Earth. "We do not know the structure of a black hole, namely of the region inside the event horizon. General relativity makes clear predictions, but some of them are certainly incorrect," Bambi said. "Black holes are therefore ideal laboratories to find possible deviations from the predictions of general relativity." In his proposal, Bambi lays out the physical feasibility of a black hole exploration mission, focusing on the two first hurdles that would need to be addressed: firstly, the identification of a suitable target; and secondly, the technology. To be clear, this is long-term planning. The technology we have now is not ready for such a mission, and the distances involved would mean a travel time of decades. But each journey begins with a single step – and without that step, the journey cannot take place. Finding a suitable black hole to visit is the first major hurdle. Currently, the closest known black hole to Earth resides at a distance of about 1,565 light-years. That's too far, really. There could, however, be black holes much closer. If they're just hanging out in space, not doing anything, black holes are hard to spot, but astronomers are getting better at finding them based on the way their gravitational field warps the space-time around them. Finding such a black hole nearby within the next decade or so isn't outside the realm of possibility. "I think we just need to be 'lucky' and have a black hole within 20 to 25 light-years. This is not under our control, of course. If there is a black hole within 20 to 25 light-years of the Solar System, we can develop the technology for such a mission," Bambi explained. "If the black hole is not within 20 to 25 light-years, but still within 40 to 50 light-years, the technological requirements are more challenging. If the black hole is at more than 40 to 50 light-years, I am afraid we have to give up." The next step would be how to get there. This would require the development of a craft that can travel at speeds up to a third of the speed of light, powered initially by Earth-based lasers, then by solar (or stellar) power as it makes its way to its destination – a journey of 70 years or so. "Two or more probes orbiting around the black hole would be the best option," Bambi said. "Generally speaking, we need that the probe gets as close as possible to the black hole, then it separates into a main probe (mothership) and many small probes. If these probes can communicate with each other through the exchange of electromagnetic signals, we can determine their exact trajectories around the black hole and how electromagnetic signals propagate around the black hole." Any data sent from the probe would then travel at light-speed to get back to Earth; at a distance of 20 light-years, that would mean an additional 20 years before data comes in, for a total mission duration of around a century or so. That's a long time, but it's worth thinking about now, even before a nearby black hole has been found, because such a mission would require a great deal of planning. And the results would absolutely be worth it, Bambi said. "I would hope to observe deviations from the predictions of general relativity and some clues to develop a theory beyond general relativity," he told ScienceAlert. In a statement, he adds, "It may sound really crazy, and in a sense closer to science fiction. But people said we'd never detect gravitational waves because they're too weak. We did – 100 years later. People thought we'd never observe the shadows of black holes. Now, 50 years later, we have images of two." The proposal has been published in iScience. Related News You're More Likely to Die From an Asteroid Than Rabies, Scientists Find Scientists Have Brewed a 'Super Alcohol' Theorized to Exist in Deep Space Earth Spun Faster Today. Here's How We Know. Solve the daily Crossword
Gizmodo
07-08-2025
- Science
- Gizmodo
Daring New Plan Lays Out Mission to a Black Hole
Fifty-six years after Disney filmmakers imagined what it would be like for a spacecraft crew to journey to a black hole in the 1979 movie The Black Hole, an astrophysicist has released a plan for a real interstellar mission to go where no spacecraft has gone before. Outlined in a new paper published today in iScience, the proposal is a two-pronged, surprisingly simple approach. First, scientists need to find a black hole that's relatively nearby. Second, they need to build something called a nanocraft—a tiny probe that runs on a microchip—sturdy enough to withstand the journey. With the appropriate technological advances, it could be doable within a few decades, Cosimo Bambi, the paper's author and a theoretical physicist at Fudan University in China, told Gizmodo. The idea is 'very speculative and extremely challenging,' the paper states, although 'not completely unrealistic.' In addition to the proposal, Bambi presents a potential trajectory for the spacecraft, as well as an outline of what scientific experiments it could perform and how it might work. Searching for a nearby black hole isn't a new concept for astrophysicists by any means. If anything, scientists have been getting better at it every year. And nanocrafts have also previously been touted as a next-generation spacecraft for exploring exoplanets—some initiatives have in the past received backing from major thought leaders in this space, including Stephen Hawking. Still, even if scientists managed to figure out the details, the mission could take up to 100 years, depending on where the target black hole is located. That's nothing in the general timescale of breakthroughs in astrophysics, Bambi said. Gravitational waves, for instance, took more than a century to confirm after they were first predicted. 'This is not something we can do tomorrow,' Bambi said, adding that his approach could be proven wrong. But assuming scientists will want to directly probe a black hole someday—a long-standing goal of astrophysics—the discussions around how to do it need to start somewhere, he said. 'The proposed mission is indeed challenging, but not entirely impossible,' said Honghui Liu, an astrophysicist at the University of Tuebingen in Germany who was not involved with the work, in an email to Gizmodo. Liuechoes Bambi's argument that the proposal may be valuable in the future: 'Sometimes we need to think boldly and do the calculations,' Liu said. If—and this is a supermassive if—scientists are ever able to send a probe to a black hole, it would revolutionize our understanding of the universe. For example, scientists have long suspected that the extreme conditions around a black hole could reveal new information that contradicts general relativity, but current observation techniques make it hard to directly characterize the physical conditions of spacetime near a black hole. 'Currently, such tests are only possible in weak gravity regimes, such as within the solar system,' Liu explained. Having a highly sensitive probe that can send signals back to Earth could offer much-desired 'clean' data around a black hole, according to both Liu and Bambi. That is, if it can survive the gravitational pull of these objects, and not get ripped apart or eaten like every other piece of matter that comes too close…
Daily Mail
07-08-2025
- Science
- Daily Mail
What could go wrong? Scientists want to launch an interstellar mission to a BLACK HOLE
It sounds like something taken straight from the pages of a high-concept science fiction novel. But scientists now want to launch an interstellar mission into the heart of a distant black hole. The plan is to create a tiny spacecraft no heavier than a paperclip, propelled by lasers, and accelerated to nearly the speed of light. Although it might take up to 100 years, scientists say this bold mission could change everything we know about physics. However, this groundbreaking project could come with eye-watering costs of up to £1 trillion for the lasers alone. To make things even more difficult, the technology required to actually build the spacecraft doesn't yet exist. Despite these issues, Professor Cosimo Bambi, of Fudan University in Shanghai, is optimistic that it could be possible within a few decades. Professor Bambi told the Daily Mail: 'The technology can be developed and it is just an issue of time, money, and motivations.' Black holes are among the strangest and most mysterious objects in the known universe. They are formed when enormous dying stars collapse into an ultra-dense point where gravity is so strong that not even light can escape. Under these extreme conditions, the laws of physics as we know them start to break down and change in unusual ways. The problem for scientists is that, since black holes emit no light or other forms of radiation, it is extremely difficult to learn about how they behave. Professor Bambi's proposal, published today in the journal iScience, is to probe the very fabric of spacetime by sending a spacecraft directly into the heart of a black hole. However, for this plan to work, scientists will need two things: a black hole close enough to visit, and a spacecraft capable of surviving the journey. For the spacecraft, Professor Bambi proposes using something called a nanocraft. Traditional spacecraft, which burn chemical fuel, are too slow and clunky to reach the speeds required. What is a nanocraft? A nanocraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed to reach velocities approaching light speed. Miniature probes weighing just grams are attached to large, lightweight sails. Lasers on Earth bombard the sail with photons to accelerate the craft. In theory, these could reach their top speed within minutes and achieve a significant fraction of light speed. Scientists have proposed that these craft could reach our neighbouring star system, Alpha Centauri, in just 20 years. Instead, a nanocraft is essentially a microchip attached to a large, lightweight sail. Lasers based on Earth or in orbit blast this sail with photons to accelerate the craft to a third of the speed of light. The nano-technology required to make this possible doesn't yet exist, and the required cost of powering the lasers would be exorbitant, but Professor Bambi isn't daunted. 'If we use current technology, the cost would be around one trillion GBP, so it is definitely beyond the budget of any scientific experiment,' he said. 'However, if we consider the trend of the past 20 years and we extrapolate this trend to the future, we find that the cost would reduce to something like one billion GBP in 20-30 years: £1 billion is roughly the typical budget in today's large space missions.' Unfortunately, this mission's biggest obstacle is outside of anyone's control. Professor Bambi says: 'In my opinion, the key point is that we need to be "lucky" and have a black hole within 20-25 light-years from the Solar System.' At this distance, it would still take the nanocraft about 70 to 80 years to reach the black hole and then another 20 to 25 years for its data to return to Earth. That gives a total mission time of up to a century, which, although a daunting challenge, is still a feasible goal. 'If the closest black hole is not within 20-25 light years, but still within 40-50 light years, it would be more challenging to reach the necessary technological requirements for the mission, but it would still be possible,' says Professor Bambi. 'If the distance of the closest black hole exceeds 40-50 light years, I am afraid we have to give up.' Currently, the nearest black hole scientists have found is Gaia-BH1 at 1,560 light-years from Earth. Although that is very close by cosmic terms, it's still much too far away for humanity to reach with conventional spacecraft. Instead, Professor Bambi's hope is that scientists may soon detect a black hole much closer to home. Our best theories about stellar evolution suggest that there should be a black hole lurking around 20 to 25 light-years from Earth. But since black holes don't give off any of their own light, finding this hidden giant will not be an easy task. As scientists get better at hunting for black holes, Professor Bambi says that we should know whether there is one within 25 light-years in the next five to ten years. If there is a suitable black hole in our galactic neighbourhood, then Professor Bambi believes this mission would be well worth the astronomical price tag. Black holes are the sources of the strongest gravitational fields found anywhere in nature, which makes them an ideal laboratory to test Einstein's theory of general relativity. Einstein's theories make certain predictions about how space and time should react to the push and pull of intense gravitational forces. However, many scientists believe that the areas inside or around a real black hole are different from what the theory predicts. By taking the first accurate measurements of these regions, scientists would finally be able to know just what those differences are. Professor Bambi says: 'The motivation of such a mission would be to test the gravitational field around a black hole, compare the measurements with the theoretical predictions of General Relativity, and hopefully find some deviations.' That could settle some big questions like whether the rules of physics change near a black hole, or if Einstein's theories even work at all under the universe's most extreme conditions. Black holes are so dense and their gravitational pull is so strong that no form of radiation can escape them - not even light. They act as intense sources of gravity which hoover up dust and gas around them. Their intense gravitational pull is thought to be what stars in galaxies orbit around. How they are formed is still poorly understood. Astronomers believe they may form when a large cloud of gas up to 100,000 times bigger than the sun, collapses into a black hole. Many of these black hole seeds then merge to form much larger supermassive black holes, which are found at the centre of every known massive galaxy. Alternatively, a supermassive black hole seed could come from a giant star, about 100 times the sun's mass, that ultimately forms into a black hole after it runs out of fuel and collapses. When these giant stars die, they also go 'supernova', a huge explosion that expels the matter from the outer layers of the star into deep space.
