Black Holes

Artist's impression shows a black hole and its yellow companion star being sent out on a long journey through the Milky Way galaxy by the explosive kick of a supernova - one of the Universe's most titanic events.

New observations made by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have allowed astronomers to measure the motion of this black-hole system across the sky using images taken in 1996 and 2001. The results are surprising: the black hole streaks across the plane of our Milky Way at a velocity four times that of stars around it! This is the first direct link between black holes and the supernovae that create them.

Credits: ESA, NASA and Felix Mirabel (French Atomic Energy Commission & the Institute for Astronomy and Space Physics/Conicet of Argentina)