NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

February 14, 2026

Roses are Red

Roses are red, nebulas are too, and this Valentine's gift is a stunning view! Pictured is a loving look at the Rosette Nebula (NGC 2237): a cosmic bloom of bright young stars sitting atop a stem of glowing hot gas. The rose’s blue-white speckles are among the most luminous stars in the galaxy, with some burning millions of times brighter than the Sun. Their stellar winds sculpt the famed rose shape by pushing gas and dust away from the center. Though only a few million years old, these massive stars are already nearing the end of their lives, while dimmer stars embedded in the nebula will burn for billions of years to come. The vibrant red hue comes from hydrogen gas, ionized by the ultraviolet light from the young stars. The rose’s blue-white center is color-mapped to indicate the presence of similarly ionized oxygen. The Rosette Nebula reminds us of the beauty and transformation woven into the fabric of the universe.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO9NtrhgBCU

The Sky is Electrified - Major Sign Appears | S0 News and frens

Feb.14.2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdHNj_fw_dw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0tPAtlDH1c (Stefan Burns: The Moment We've Been Anticipating for Decades has Begun…)

https://watchers.news/2026/02/14/geomagnetic-storms-possible-this-weekend-as-cme-from-m1-0-solar-flare-heads-toward-earth/

https://www.foxweather.com/earth-space/partial-solar-eclipse-ring-of-fire-february-2026

https://news.ssbcrack.com/northern-lights-expected-to-dazzle-across-northern-u-s-on-valentines-day-weekend/

https://x.com/MrMBB333/status/2022496549893530094

https://x.com/SchumannBotDE/status/2022672449901400258

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/aurora-viewline-tonight-and-tomorrow-night-experimental

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/

https://spaceweather.com/

>>24257740

>>24257948

https://www.livescience.com/space/comets/newly-visible-city-size-green-comet-will-soon-be-ejected-into-interstellar-space-just-like-3i-atlas

https://www.iflscience.com/years-before-3iatlas-arrived-our-first-known-interstellar-visitor-was-a-weirdo-called-oumuamua-82559

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/will-a-bright-comet-adorn-our-early-spring-sky-why-astronomers-are-getting-excited-about-comet-c2026-a1-maps/ar-AA1VKttD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCBX5NVrOeE (Angry Astronaut: 3I Atlas probes reach Earth? Two new Interstellar UFOs discovered!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUybIxG1lKg (Ray's Astrophotography: Will Comet C/2026 A1 MAPS DIVE into the SUN? What They Don’t Explain)

https://x.com/Defence12543/status/2022568418072048038

https://x.com/grok_3i_atlas/status/2022450101558333570

extra

https://avi-loeb.medium.com/thank-god-for-the-sun-massive-stars-are-less-habitable-2050cbb93f42

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO_3nR8loXs (Dobsonian Power: HE FOUND MYSTERIOUS PYRAMIDS ONLINE… AND TRAVELED THERE ALONE!)

https://www.youtube.com/@ChucksAstrophotography/posts

Newly visible, city-size 'green comet' will soon be ejected into interstellar space — just like 3I/ATLAS

February 14, 2026

A striking "green comet" about the size of a small city is lighting up the night sky as it nears Earth next week. Experts predict the hefty iceball may soon be permanently ejected from the solar system, dooming it to drift through interstellar space — like the "alien" comet 3I/ATLAS.

The new comet, dubbed C/2024 E1 (Wierzchoś), was discovered in March 2024 by Polish astronomer Kacper Wierzchoś, who spotted the icy object sailing toward us with a 4.9-foot (1.5 meter) telescope at the Mount Lemmon Observatory in Arizona.

The comet has since been observed by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which detected large amounts of carbon dioxide in its coma — the cloud of gas and dust that surrounds the comet's icy shell.

An initial analysis of JWST data suggested that Comet Wierzchoś' nucleus has a diameter of around 8.5 miles (13.7 kilometers), which is roughly two-thirds the length of Manhattan and around four times the island's width.

However, a more recent study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, hints that this may be an overestimate.

Comet Wierzchoś originates from the Oort cloud — the expansive reservoir of comets and other icy objects lurking near the outer edge of the solar system — and is hyperbolic, meaning that it has an open and flattened trajectory, and does not repeatedly orbit the sun.

This is likely the first time it has ever ventured into the inner solar system, the researchers suspect.

Some researchers believe that it has been slowly falling toward the sun for between 1 million and 3 million years, although it is hard to tell for sure.

But most experts agree that the gravitational kick from its current solar slingshot will fire it out of our cosmic neighborhood forever and into interstellar space, according to Spaceweather.com.

The eccentric iceball recently passed its closest point to our home star, known as perihelion, on Jan. 20, reaching a minimum distance of around 52 million miles (84 million km) from the solar surface, Live Science's sister site Space.com previously reported.

It will soon make its closest approach to Earth, on Tuesday (Feb. 17), when it will be around 94 million miles (151 million km) from our planet — roughly the same distance away as the sun.

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>>24258005

Going, going, gone

According to the researchers, it could take several decades or even centuries for Comet Wierzchoś to officially leave the solar system.

But once it has, it will spend millions if not billions of years drifting through the Milky Way, sporadically passing through other alien star systems on its way.

This is exactly what happened to the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, which made headlines last year as it shot through the inner solar system, having been kicked out by its home star likely long before the sun was born.

3I/ATLAS was first spotted in July and reached perihelion in late October, before swinging past Earth in mid-December.

During this period, it displayed many unusual characteristics, which led some scientists to controversially propose that it may be an alien spacecraft — despite overwhelming evidence that it is a natural comet.

It is now on its way back out of the solar system and will likely pass through many other star systems, much like Comet Wierzchoś eventually will.

How to see C/2024 E1 (Wierzchoś)

Since Comet Wierzchoś passed perihelion, it has become significantly brighter and grown a long tail of gas and dust, allowing astrophotographers to snap spectacular shots of it speeding across the night sky.

Austrian astrophotographer Gerald Rhemann captured one of the best photos of the iceball on Jan. 26 from a night sky reserve in Namibia (see above).

Many of these photos, including Rhemann's, show the comet's coma glowing green.

This rare hue is likely tied to its high carbon content, as seen in previous comets, although the exact cause of its coloration has not been reported on by researchers.

The emerald iceball will not become bright enough to be visible to the naked eye. However, it can be easily spotted with a decent telescope or pair of stargazing binoculars.

From the Northern Hemisphere, it will remain observable over the next few weeks and can be best spotted above the southwestern horizon after sunset, as it passes through the constellation Sculptor, according to EarthSky.com.

However, it will be easier to spot from the Southern Hemisphere.

Close encounters of the cometary kind

2026 is shaping up to be another bumper year for comet enthusiasts, following on from the excitement of 3I/ATLAS, as well as other comets like Lemmon and SWAN, last year.

In recent weeks, astronomers have spotted a new "sungrazer" comet, dubbed C/2026 A1 (MAPS), which could potentially become bright enough to be seen with the naked eye during the daytime in early April — if it survives its extremely close slingshot around the sun.

Another hefty iceball, dubbed C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS), could also become visible without a telescope as it nears its closest points to both the sun and Earth in late April.

With the help of the newly operational Vera C. Rubin Observatory, some researchers are also hoping that we may soon find many more hidden objects — potentially including the solar system's next interstellar visitor.

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>>24258005

https://spaceflightnow.com/2026/02/14/very-lucky-day-nasa-spacex-ace-astronaut-launch-to-the-space-station-on-friday-the-13th/

https://x.com/NASAAdmin/status/2022349931671863744

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO5Mj68LG1A

‘Very lucky day’: NASA, SpaceX ace astronaut launch to the space station on Friday the 13th

February 14, 2026

Flying in the face of superstition, NASA and SpaceX conducted a smooth countdown and launch of three astronauts and a cosmonaut to begin the latest, long-duration mission to the International Space Station on Friday, Feb. 13.

The nine Merlin 1D engines roared to life at 5:15 a.m. EST (1015 UTC) following a smooth countdown. It was the first time that NASA conducted a crewed mission on a Friday the 13th.

“It turns out Friday the 13th is a very lucky day,” the SpaceX launch director quipped moments after the Dragon Freedom spacecraft separated from the Falcon 9 rocket’s upper stage.

“Jessica, Jack, Sophie, Andrey, it’s been a pleasure training with you and preparing for your flight. For the entire Falcon launch team, thank you, good luck and god speed to the crew of Freedom.”

“Thank you team, that was quite a ride. Thank you, SpaceX, Falcon 9, and NASA teams,” Crew-12 commander and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir replied.

“We have left the Earth, but the Earth has not left us. When we gaze at our planet from above, it is immediately clear that everything is interconnected.”

Crew-12 marks the second trip to space for both Meir and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev and the first flight for NASA astronaut Jack Hathaway and European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot.

The quartet are scheduled to arrive at the orbiting outpost at about 3:15 p.m. EST (2015 UTC) on Saturday, Feb. 14, to begin an eight-month mission.

The launch of Crew-12 was the first astronaut flight for NASA with Jared Isaacman serving in the role of NASA Administrator. A veteran of two commercial spaceflights himself, he said it was special to witness a crewed launch from his current vantage point.

“Felt like I might’ve had the second best seat in the house today going into the operations,” Isaacman said. “It was just wonderful to see everything in motion.

Felt very privileged to be here alongside an extraordinary team preparing for an excellent mission, like Crew-12. Great to watch it.”

The launch also marked the debut of a new recovery site for SpaceX’s Falcon boosters: Landing Zone 40.

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>>24258054

SpaceX built out the site after the U.S. Space Force’s decision to require launch providers to move towards recovering orbital class rockets at locations adjacent to their launch pads, in order to free up real estate for other rocket companies.

The Crew-12 launch also marked the 20th human spaceflight mission for SpaceX to date.

The forthcoming arrival of Crew-12 at the ISS marks the beginning of a busy period for the orbiting outpost. At the end of February, SpaceX will undock its Cargo Dragon vehicle that’s flying the company’s 33rd Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-33) mission.

That will be followed by the unberthing of JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) HTV-X cargo vehicle in early March. Then in the mid-March two astronauts will conduct a spacewalk that was postponed with the early departure of Crew-11 from the space station.

Then at the end of March, Roscomos is set to launch its next Progress cargo vehicle. Finally, in April, SpaceX will launch Northrop Grumman’s next Cygnus spacecraft, on the NG-24.

“So a lot going on, as always. Very, very busy onboard space station,” said Dana Weigel, manager of NASA’s International Space Station Program. “We’re really looking forward to having the crew onboard.”

After the early return of Crew-11 from the space station, NASA and SpaceX aimed to launch the Crew-12 mission as soon as Feb. 11, barring potential conflicts with Artemis 2 activities or weather constraints.

As it turned out, weather along the ascent corridor proved insurmountable for both Feb. 11 and Feb. 12.

While Crew-12 was unable to launch on Thursday, NASA took the opportunity to perform what Isaacman called “a series of mini wet dress rehearsals” with the Space Launch System rocket.

Isaacman said during the post-launch press briefing that more information on the tests would be forthcoming.

“The teams wanted to have a chance to get together and review the data before taking a position on whether or not we’re going to advance to a full wet dress two or undertake additional kind of mini tests,” Isaacman said.

“We already communicated through a blog that we replaced some seals and now we want to do as many tests as we possibly can before stepping into a full wet dress rehearsal operation again, to just gain confidence.”

He said while the results at this point are preliminary, they do show some promise for the Artemis 2 prelaunch campaign.

“At least from some of the early views, we did not see some of the leaks for the portion of the test we were running that had a comparable period during the full Artemis 2 wet dress we did,” Isaacman said.

“So, it’s an early indication, but we’ll share more details. We’ll share more details when we get into it tomorrow, but I think they idea is we will continue to do everything available to gain confidence going into the full wet dress.”

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Following Confidence Test, NASA Continues Artemis II Data Review

February 13, 2026 7:51 PM

As part of robustly testing the vehicle prior to flight, NASA engineers are reviewing data after a confidence test Feb. 12, in which operators partially filled the SLS (Space Launch System) core stage liquid hydrogen tank to assess newly replaced seals in an area used to fill the rocket with propellant.

During the test, teams encountered an issue with ground support equipment that reduced the flow of liquid hydrogen into the rocket.

Teams were able to gain confidence in several key objectives of the test, and data was obtained at the core stage interfaces, taken at the same time in the test where they encountered a leak during the previous wet dress rehearsal.

Engineers will purge the line over the weekend to ensure proper environmental conditions and inspect the ground support equipment before replacing a filter suspected to be the cause of the reduced flow.

Engineers will examine findings before setting a timeline for the next test, a second wet dress rehearsal this month. March remains the earliest potential launch window for Artemis II.

https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/02/13/following-confidence-test-nasa-continues-artemis-ii-data-review/

>>24258054

>>24258056

Satellite signatures of the NASA/SpaceX Crew 12 launch

13 February 2026

The NASA/SpaceX Crew 12 Mission to the International Space Station was launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1015 UTC on 13 February 2026 — and overlapping 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sectors from GOES-19 (GOES-East) provided 30-second images from all 16 ABI spectral bands (above).

Since this was a nighttime launch, brighter white signatures of the Falcon 9 rocket booster were seen in Visible and Near-Infrared spectral bands 02-06 — while thermal signatures were apparent in many of the Infrared spectral bands (07-16).

In spite of an oblique satellite viewing angle, many of the same signatures were seen in 1-minute GOES-18 (GOES-West) imagery (below).

https://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/satellite-blog/archives/68950

Modern Semi Truck Design Actually Comes From NASA Engineering

Feb. 14, 2026 6:47 am EST

Next time you see a semi truck on the road, take a moment to appreciate that NASA had a hand in developing its design.

In 1973, aerospace engineer Edwin J. Saltzman was biking to work at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center when he came to a realization about the semi trucks of the time.

Saltzman noticed that the aerodynamics of passing trucks would push him and his bicycle toward the shoulder of the road before the wake then pulled him back in. 

For an engineer who intimately understood aerodynamics, these close calls were a clear indication that the trucks were inefficiently fighting airflow. Saltzman wanted to mitigate the "bow wave" created by semi trucks in motion and help them "glide" down the road instead.

This would reduce drag, boost fuel efficiency, and perhaps contribute to cyclist and motorcyclist safety. Luckily, Saltzman had the means to start solving the semi truck aerodynamics problem right there at his lab. 

His colleagues were already studying the effects of drag and wind resistance on various aircraft and space shuttles; research that was mostly applicable when designing new semi trucks. 

The result of the experiments at Dryden was a boat tail trailer. While many trailer manufacturers deemed the boat tail to be impractical for loading and unloading, the research proved that an aerodynamic design could translate to thousands of gallons of fuel savings per year.

How NASA engineers made semi trucks more aerodynamic

Scientists have a different way of approaching everyday situations, and it's these types of rational thinkers who are addressing big issues like solving the plastic ocean pollution problem today.

In the case of Saltzman and his colleagues at NASA, they turned a mundane realization about semi trucks into a campaign that changed the automotive manufacturing industry.

It all started with an experiment that showed rounding the front edges of a vehicle was enough to reduce drag by 52%. From there, it was a matter of pushing that reduction as far as possible.

The team at Dryden made a number of improvements that enhanced aerodynamics.

They sealed the bottom of the test vehicle, rounded vertical corners, decreased internal volume, closed the gap between the cab and trailer, and ultimately added the boat tail.

A separate team at Langley Research Center later conducted their own research on the subject, culminating in the use of "airtabs" to control and separate the flow of air around the vehicle.

The Dryden Flight Research Center, where Saltzman developed those innovative truck designs, is now known as the Armstrong Flight Research Center.

That same facility recently played host to NASA's X-59 supersonic jet breaking the sound barrier without producing an ear-splitting "sonic boom."

This is a big step toward new possibilities in commercial flight, proving that NASA engineering is still impacting the world around us wherever we look.

Read More: https://www.bgr.com/2097786/semi-truck-aerodynamics-created-by-nasa-engineer/

NASA Juno Mission Uncovers Subtle Geometric Shifts That Challenge Existing Models of the Jovian Interior

Updated: 14 February 2026 17:04 IST

New measurements indicate that Jupiter is slightly smaller and more flattened than previously believed. According to a study, researchers using data from NASA's Juno spacecraft have provided the most precise dimensions of the gas giant to date.

The updated measurements at the 1-bar pressure level show a polar radius of 66,842 km and an equatorial radius of 71,488 km, which are roughly 12 km and 4 km smaller, respectively, than previous estimates based on the 1970s Pioneer and Voyager missions.

Radio Occultation Data Redefines Jupiter's Size

According to a Nature Astronomy report, scientists used repeated radio occultation observations to track how radio signals bend while passing through Jupiter's thick atmosphere, allowing more accurate mapping of temperature, density, and overall planetary shape.

Previous size estimates were based primarily on data collected during the Pioneer and Voyager missions in the late 1970s. At that time, scientists had only six radio occultation measurements to work with, which left a significant margin for uncertainty.

Those early readings could not fully account for the planet's complex atmospheric effects or the powerful zonal winds that whip around the gas giant.

These high-speed winds distort the atmosphere and influence the planet's shape, a factor that modern researchers have now integrated using far more extensive data from the Juno mission.

Advanced Observations Refine Jupiter's Radius

Improved orbital dynamics and improved data processing techniques enabled researchers to obtain more consistent, higher-quality observations. The equatorial radius is also seen to be slightly smaller than earlier calculations, with the poles more flattened.

Experts mentioned that these small adjustments are scientifically meaningful because precise dimensions help refine models of Jupiter's deep interior. More precise models also help inform our comprehension of the other gas giants in far-off planetary systems.

https://www.gadgets360.com/science/news/jupiter-s-true-size-refined-as-new-data-reveals-slightly-smaller-and-flatter-planet-than-previously-thought-11003556

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-026-02777-x

NASA Shares Heart-Shaped Nebula Image To Mark Valentine's Day

Feb 14, 2026 16:44 pm IST

NASA has shared a special space image to mark Valentine's Day, showing a heart-shaped nebula where new stars are being born. The agency released a new image of the Cocoon Nebula (IC 5146), calling it a fitting symbol for the day.

The nebula is a star-forming region in the Milky Way galaxy and appears in the shape of a heart. The image incorporates X-ray data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, shown in red, green, and blue.

This data reveals a cluster of young stars just emerging from within the glowing nebula. These newborn stars are very active and emit large amounts of X-rays, which Chandra easily detects, reported NASA.

The nebula's glow is also created by a combination of different types of light. Some light comes directly from these young stars, while some is reflected back by dust within the nebula.

How The Image Was Created

This composite image was created using optical-light images from astrophotographers Michael Adler and Barry Wilson. In addition, infrared data from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission has also been added.

Combining these sources clearly reveals the nebula's glowing cloud, dense dust, and numerous stars scattered within and around it.

The Cocoon Nebula spans approximately 15 light-years and is located approximately 2,650 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Cygnus.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, oversees the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory operates the Chandra X-ray Center, which handles science and flight-related activities.

https://www.ndtv.com/science/nasa-shares-heart-shaped-nebula-image-to-mark-valentines-day-11003160

https://x.com/NASA/status/2022348306995642717

NASA Goddard Library Shutdown Update (2)

February 13, 2026

I am posting some photos of the NASA Goddard library taken yesterday. The photos were NOT taken by library employees – but rather by others at GSFC.

Word has it that trucks are arriving this weekend to begin removal of these boxes.

Many GSFC employees are still concerned that the imminent removal and possible disposal of materials are in direct contradiction to the instructions in a Congressional Joint Exploratory Statement which directs NASA to preserve technical and scientific capabilities.

Jared Isaacman has said that he has staff he’s assigned to monitor this process. Perhaps NASA GSFC or NASA HQ management could post an update as to where these boxed library materials are being sent. I’d ask NASA PAO – but they ignore me these days.

Keith’s 14 Feb Update: according to a source at NASA GRC “We are currently renovating our library space and briefing center (Building 142) and we’ve been told recently that NASA GRC will be ‘The NASA Library’ for the Agency and that the GSFC library books are being relocated to GRC.‘.

https://nasawatch.com/trumpspace/nasa-goddard-library-shutdown-update/

>>24258123

kek

he earned 'em

'The beacons were lit!' Scientists name merging supermassive black holes after 'Lord of the Rings' locations

February 13, 2026

When the beacons were lit in "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," the city of Gondor called to Rohan for aid, spelling doom for Sauron and his legions.

However, when the beacons of supermassive black hole systems named for these locations in J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" novels were lit up, it was exceptionally good news for scientists.

The supermassive black hole binaries Gondor, officially designated SDSS J0729+4008, and Rohan, SDSS J1536+0411, were discovered by the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) using a new technique that uses the background hum of ripples in space called "gravitational waves" in conjunction with observations of quasars, which are powered by feeding supermassive black holes.

The logic behind this is that supermassive black hole binaries, which spiral together to lead to collisions and mergers, emit gravitational waves of increasing frequency as their orbits shrink, creating a background hum of gravitational waves.

The resultant mergers seem to be five times more likely to be found in quasars.

That makes quasars beacons that can indicate the unification of supermassive black holes. If one of these beacons radiates gravitational waves like the lit beacons of Gondor, it indicates binary black holes are present.

Thus, this detection technique offers scientists a method to create a cosmic map of these merging titans.

"Our finding provides the scientific community with the first concrete benchmarks for developing and testing detection protocols for individual, continuous gravitational wave sources," NANOGrav team member Chiara Mingarelli said in a statement.

Mingarelli and colleagues hunted for supermassive black hole binaries using their new approach in 114 Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs), the bright central regions of galaxies where supermassive black holes are ravenously feasting on surrounding gas and dust.

Mingarelli explained the reason for the unusual name choice for these black hole systems: "The names come from both people and pop culture. Rohan was first, for Rohan Shivakumar, the Yale student who first analyzed it, and Gondor was next, because, well — the beacons were lit!"

NANOGrav, which first detected a gravitational wave background in 2023, will spend the coming months hunting and identifying supermassive black hole binaries.

The team thinks that even a relatively small catalog of black hole mergers could help create a gravitational wave background map. This research could also help scientists better understand galaxy mergers, the physics of black holes and the nature of gravitational waves themselves.

"Our work has laid out a roadmap for a systemic supermassive black hole binary detection framework," Mingarelli said. "We carried out a systematic, targeted search, developed a rigorous protocol — and two targets rose to the top as examples motivating follow-up."

https://www.space.com/astronomy/black-holes/the-beacons-were-lit-scientists-name-merging-supermassive-black-holes-after-lord-of-the-rings-locations

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae3719

https://www.livescience.com/space/black-holes/runaway-black-hole-detected-by-the-james-webb-telescope-adds-a-strange-new-chapter-to-our-universes-story

'Runaway' black hole detected by the James Webb telescope adds a strange new chapter to our universe's story

February 14, 2026

Last year, astronomers were fascinated by a runaway comet passing through our solar system from somewhere far beyond. It was moving at around 68 kilometres per second, just over double Earth's speed around the Sun.

Imagine if it had been something much bigger and faster: a black hole travelling at more like 3,000 km per second. We wouldn't see it coming until its intense gravitational forces started knocking around the orbits of the outer planets.

This may sound a bit ridiculous — but in the past year several lines of evidence have come together to show such a visitor is not impossible.

Astronomers have seen clear signs of runaway supermassive black holes tearing through other galaxies, and have uncovered evidence that smaller, undetectable runaways are probably out there too.

Runaway black holes: the theory

The story begins in the 1960s, when New Zealand mathematician Roy Kerr found a solution of Einstein's general relativity equations that described spinning black holes. This led to two crucial discoveries about black holes.

First, the "no-hair theorem", which tells us black holes can be distinguished only by three properties: their mass, their spin and their electric charge.

For the second we need to think about Einstein's famous formula E = mc ² which says that energy has mass. In the case of a black hole, Kerr's solution tells us that as much as 29% of a black hole's mass can be in the form of rotational energy.

English physicist Roger Penrose deduced 50 years ago that this rotational energy of black holes can be released. A spinning black hole is like a battery capable of releasing vast amounts of spin energy.

A black hole can contain about 100 times more extractable energy than a star of the same mass. If a pair of black holes coalesce into one, much of that vast energy can be released in a few seconds.

It took two decades of painstaking supercomputer calculations to understand what happens when two spinning black holes collide and coalesce, creating gravitational waves.

Depending on how the black holes are spinning, the gravitational wave energy can be released much more strongly in one direction than others — which sends the black holes shooting like a rocket in the opposite direction.

If the spins of the two colliding black holes are aligned the right way, the final black hole can be rocket-powered to speeds of thousands of kilometres per second.

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>>24258227

Learning from real black holes

All that was theory, until the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave observatories began detecting the whoops and chirps of gravitational waves given off by pairs of colliding black holes in 2015.

One of the most exciting discoveries was of black hole "ringdowns": a tuning fork-like ringing of newly formed black holes that tells us about their spin. The faster they spin, the longer they ring.

Better and better observations of coalescing black holes revealed that some pairs of black holes had randomly oriented spin axes, and that many of them had very large spin energy.

All this suggested runaway black holes were a real possibility. Moving at 1% of light speed, their trajectories through space would not follow the curved orbits of stars in galaxies, but rather would be almost straight.

Runaway black holes spotted in the wild

This brings us to the final step in our sequence: the actual discovery of runaway black holes.

It is difficult to search for relatively small runaway black holes. But a runaway black hole of a million or billion solar masses will create huge disruptions to the stars and gas around it as it travels through a galaxy.

They are predicted to leave contrails of stars in their wake, forming from interstellar gas in the same way contrails of cloud form in the wake of a jet plane.

Stars form from collapsing gas and dust attracted to the passing black hole. It's a process that would last for tens of millions of years as the runaway black hole crosses a galaxy.

In 2025, several papers showed images of surprisingly straight streaks of stars within galaxies such as the image below. These seem to be convincing evidence for runaway black holes.

One paper, led by Yale astronomer Pieter van Dokkum, describes a very distant galaxy imaged by the James Webb telescope with a surprisingly bright contrail 200,000 light years long.

The contrail showed the pressure effects expected from the gravitational compression of gas as a black hole passes: in this case it suggests a black hole with a mass 10 million times the Sun's, travelling at almost 1,000km/s.

Another describes a long straight contrail cutting across a galaxy called NGC3627. This one is likely caused by a black hole of about 2 million times the mass of the Sun, travelling at 300km/s. Its contrail is about 25,000 light years long.

If these extremely massive runaways exist, so too should their smaller cousins because gravitational wave observations suggest that some of them come together with the opposing spins needed to create powerful kicks.

The speeds are easily fast enough for them to travel between galaxies.So runaway black holes tearing through and between galaxies are a new ingredient of our remarkable universe. It's not impossible that one could turn up in our solar system, with potentially catastrophic results.

We should not lose sleep over this discovery. The odds are minuscule. It is just another way that the story of our universe has become a little bit richer and a bit more exciting than it was before.

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