The biggest black hole breakthroughs of 2025
2025年有关黑洞的巨大突破
Black holes are arguably the most fascinating entities in the whole realm of science — these are regions in the fabric of spacetime that surround an infinitely dense, infinitesimally small point of mass and exert a gravitational force so strong that not even light can escape their grips.
黑洞可以说是整个科学领域中最迷人的实体，它们是时空结构中围绕着一个密度无限大、体积无限小的质量点形成的区域，并产生强大到连光都无法逃脱的引力束缚。
It is therefore no surprise that just as black holes grip light (and everything else, for that matter) they grip the attention of scientists and the general public, too. And 2025 has been no exception, with the year bringing forth some intriguing and jaw-dropping scientific breakthroughs regarding these cosmic titans.
因此，就像黑洞抓住光（以及其他一切）一样，它也深深抓住了科学家和普通大众的目光。2025年也不例外，在这一年里，针对这些“宇宙巨兽"的研究取得了一系列引人入胜且令人惊叹的科学突破。
So, as we prepare for 2026 and the scientific advances it will deliver, Space.com presents you with some of our favorite black hole advances announced over the last 12 months.
因此，在2026年即将到来、新一批科学发现蓄势待发之际，Space.com将为您梳理过去12个月中最值得关注的几项黑洞研究突破。
In November, astronomers revealed they used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to discover a voraciously feeding and rapidly growing supermassive black hole in the infant universe. Existing just 570 million years after the Big Bang, this black hole sits at the heart of the galaxy CANUCS-LRD-z8.6, a so-called "little red dot" galaxy, or a class of small, bright and extremely distant objects the JWST has been routinely discovering since it began observations in 2022
11月，天文学家透露，他们利用詹姆斯·韦伯空间望远镜（JWST）在早期宇宙中发现了一个正疯狂吞噬物质、并急速成长的超大质量黑洞。这个黑洞诞生于大爆炸后仅5.7亿年，位于CANUCS-LRD-z8.6星系的中心，该星系属于所谓的"小红点"星系，是一类体型小巧、光芒夺目且距离极为遥远的天体，自2022年投入观测以来，詹姆斯·韦伯空间望远镜已陆续发现了大量此类目标。
"This discovery is truly remarkable. We've observed a galaxy from less than 600 million years after the Big Bang, and not only is it hosting a supermassive black hole, but the black hole is growing rapidly — far faster than we would expect in such a galaxy at this early time," discovery team leader Roberta Tripodi of the University of Ljubljana FMF in Slovenia said in a statement at the time. "This challenges our understanding of black hole and galaxy formation in the early universe and opens up new avenues of research into how these objects came to be."Read more about CANUCS-LRD-z8.6 and its supermassive black hole inhabitant here.
该发现团队的负责人、斯洛文尼亚卢布尔雅那大学FMF的罗伯塔·特里波迪在当时的一份声明中说道：“这一发现实在令人振奋。我们观测到了一个诞生于大爆炸后不足6亿年的星系，它不仅孕育着一颗超大质量黑洞，而且黑洞的成长速度远超我们对早期宇宙星系的预期，这颠覆了我们对早期宇宙中黑洞及星系形成的理解，也为探索这些天体的起源开辟了全新的研究方向。”阅读更多关于CANUCS-LRD-z8.6及其超大质量黑洞居民的信息。
Sticking with the JWST, in December, astronomers used the $10 billion space telescope to confirm the first sighting of a runaway supermassive black hole. This cosmic titan weighs in at 10 million times the mass of the sun and is rocketing through space at a staggering 2.2 million miles per hour (3.5 million kilometers per hour), which is 3,000 times the speed of sound at sea level here on Earth.
詹姆斯·韦伯空间望远镜仍在持续观察中，12月，天文学家借助这台耗资100亿美元的太空望远镜，首次发现了一颗逃逸的超大质量黑洞。这个黑洞有着高达1000万倍的太阳质量，此刻正以每小时220万英里（约350万公里）的惊人速度在太空中疾驰，这一速度相当于地球海平面声速的3000倍。
The runaway supermassive black hole is pushing forward a literal galaxy-size "bow-shock" of matter in front of it, as well as dragging a 200,000 light-year-long tail behind it that is gathering gas and actively birthing stars.
这个逃逸的超大质量黑洞一边推动它前面一个星系大小的物质“弓形冲击”，一边拖着一条20万光年长的尾迹，这条尾迹正在聚集气体并积极孕育着新的恒星。
"It boggles the mind!" discovery team leader Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University told Space.com. "The forces that are needed to dislodge such a massive black hole from its home are enormous. And yet, it was predicted that such escapes should occur!"
”耶鲁大学的发现号团队负责人彼得·范·多库姆在Space.com上说：“实在令人难以置信！要将这样一个质量惊人的黑洞从栖身之所中踢出来，所需的力量也必然超乎想象。然而有人预测，这种逃逸的确会发生！”
Read more about this cosmic runaway here.
在这里阅读更多有关宇宙逃逸的信息。
Not all supermassive black holes are associated with violent activity. Take our own supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), which sits at the heart of the Milky Way. Unlike other black holes, Sgr A* isn't greedily feasting on gas, dust and stars, but rather exists on a diet that scientists have related to a human consuming one grain of rice every million years.However, in March 2025, scientists revealed that it isn't all quiet at the heart of our galaxy. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/ submillimeter Array (ALMA), a team of astronomers discovered "space tornadoes" raging around Sgr A*, revolutionizing our view of the Galactic Center and the nature of "quiet" black holes.
并非所有超大质量黑洞都与剧烈活动有关。以我们所在区域的人马座A*（Sgr A*）为例，它是一个超大质量的黑洞，位于银河系的中心。与其他黑洞不同，Sgr A*并不会贪婪地吞噬气体、尘埃和恒星，而是持续一种特殊的进食节奏，以科学家的视角看，这相当于人类每百万年才消耗一粒大米。然而，在2025年3月，科学家们透露，银河系中心远非一片死寂。借助阿塔卡马大型毫米波/亚毫米波阵列（ALMA），一支天文学家团队发现人马座A*周围正肆虐着"太空龙卷风"，这彻底改变了我们对银河系中心和“安静”黑洞的本质看法。
"Our research contributes to the fascinating Galactic Center landscape by uncovering these slim filaments as an important part of material circulation," team member Xing Lu of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory said in a statement. "We can envision these as space tornados: they are violent streams of gas, they dissipate shortly and they distribute materials into the environment efficiently."
上海天文台团队成员邢璐在一份声明中说：“我们的研究通过揭示这些细丝作为物质循环的重要组成部分，为迷人的银河系中心景观做出了贡献。”“我们可以将它们想象成太空龙卷风：它们是猛烈的气流，很快就会消散，并有效地将物质分配到环境中。”
Read more about these space tornadoes here.
在这里阅读更多有关太空龙卷风的信息。
The Milky Way's supermassive black hole was noisier than usual back in January 2025, when astronomers used the JWST to observe it throwing out highly energetic flares.
早在2025年1月，银河系的超大质量黑洞就比平时更加嘈杂，当时天文学家使用JWST观察到它抛出高能耀斑。
This represented the first time astronomers had seen flares from Sgr A* in the mid-infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum, with the team behind these observations using them to better model outflows from supermassive black holes in research released in November.
这是天文学家首次在电磁波谱的中红外波段捕捉到人马座A*的耀斑爆发。基于这一观测，该研究团队于11月发表的最新研究中依据这些数据建立了更为精准的超大质量黑洞物质外流模型。
"The mid-infrared data is exciting because, thanks to the new JWST data, we can close the gap between the radio and near-infrared regimes, which had been a 'gaping hole' in the spectrum of Sgr A*," Sebastiano von Fellenberg of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, told Space.com. "On the one hand, our mid-infrared flare looks like a typical near-infrared flare, so we now know flares also occur in the mid-infrared regime — and this isn't trivial as, for instance, the radio variability looks quite different, and we do not see pronounced flare-like peaks in the light curve."
德国波恩马克斯·普朗克射电天文学研究所的塞巴斯蒂亚诺·冯·费伦伯格在Space.com中说到：“中红外数据令人兴奋，得益于新的JWST数据，我们得以填补射电波段与近红外波段之间的空白，这一直是Sgr A*光谱中的一个‘大缺口’。一方面，我们观测到的这次中红外耀斑看起来与典型的近红外耀斑相似，因此我们现在确认耀斑现象同样发生在中红外波段，而这绝非小事，例如射电波段的变光特性就截然不同，并且我们在其光变曲线中并未观察到明显的耀斑状峰值。
Read more about this discovery here.
点击此处了解更多有关这一发现的信息。
If you thought Christmas dinner gave you a massive case of indigestion, spare a thought for the black hole at the heart of spiral galaxy NGC 3783. In December, scientists revealed they had witnessed the supermassive black hole in NGC 3783 burping out a jet of material at a staggering 134 million miles per hour (216 million kilometers per hour), which is about 20% the speed of light.
如果你认为圣诞晚餐让你产生严重的消化不良，不妨考虑位于螺旋星系NGC 3783中心的黑洞。去年的12月，科学家透露称他们目睹了NGC 3783中的超大质量黑洞猛然喷发出一股物质喷流，速度高达每小时1.34亿英里（约合每小时2.16亿公里），约为光速的五分之一。
The eruption of plasma was preceded by a flare of X-rays spotted by European Space Agency (ESA) XRISM X-ray telescope, with follow-up observations performed by NASA's XMM-Newton spacecraft, helping to measure the scale and structure of this tumultuous cosmic storm.
在等离子体爆发之前，欧洲空间局（ESA）的XRISM X射线望远镜已率先捕捉到了X射线耀斑；随后，NASA的XMM-Newton卫星展开了后续观测，帮助科学家测出这场剧烈宇宙风暴的规模和结构。
"Windy active galactic nuclei also play a big role in how their host galaxies evolve over time and how they form new stars," team member and ESA research fellow Camille Diez, a coauthor of the study, in a recent press release. "Because they're so influential, knowing more about the magnetism of active galactic nuclei, and how they whip up winds such as these, is key to understanding the history of galaxies throughout the universe."
该研究的合著者兼团队成员、欧空局研究员卡米尔·迭斯（Camille Diez）在最近的一份新闻稿中表示：“风暴肆虐的活动星系核对于宿主星系的长期演化以及恒星的诞生过程具有深远影响，它们的影响力非常之大，所以深入探究活动星系核的磁性特征，以及它们如何掀起如此猛烈的风暴，是理解全宇宙星系历史演变的关键所在。”
Someone pass the Pepto.
有人把胃药递给我。
Read more here.
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In any other year, the supermassive black hole mentioned above would probably scoop the award for most striking outburst, but not in 2025. This year, that accolade goes to a flare designated J2245+3743, spotted erupting from a supermassive black hole located in the center of a galaxy 10 billion light-years away from Earth.
在任何其他年份，上述那颗超大质量黑洞或许都能稳夺"最惊人爆发"的头衔，但不会是2025年。今年，这一荣誉授予了一个名为J2245+3743的耀斑，它正从距离地球100亿光年的星系中心一个超大质量黑洞中喷薄而出。
What made this flare so amazing isn't just the fact that it is the most distant black hole flare ever seen, but also that it is pumping out energy equivalent to the output of 10 trillion suns! That is 30 times more energetic than the previous most energetic flare, the wonderfully named "Scary Barbie" spotted back in 2018. The flare is believed to be the result of a star wandering too close to this supermassive black hole, which has the mass of 500 million suns.
这一耀斑之所以令人叹为观止，不仅在于它是有史以来观测到的最遥远的黑洞耀斑，更在于其能量输出相当于10万亿个太阳的总和！这比之前最有活力的耀斑（2018年名字颇为形象的“恐怖芭比”）的能量高出30倍。耀斑的爆发源于一颗恒星误入那个拥有5亿倍太阳质量的超大质量黑洞的势力范围。
The fact that J2245+3743 is ongoing indicates that this black hole is still swallowing this doomed star, with discovery team member Matthew Graham of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) likening the situation to "a fish only halfway down the whale's gullet."
J2245+3743耀斑目前仍在持续，表明这颗黑洞尚未将这颗注定毁灭的恒星完全吞噬，来自加州理工学院（Caltech）的马修·格雷厄姆（Matthew Graham）将这种情况比作“一条鱼只下到了鲸鱼喉咙的一半”。
Read more here.
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In August, scientists revealed they have the most distant and earliest supermassive black hole. Sitting in a galaxy designated CAPERS-LRD-z9, another one of those JWST little red dots, this beast with a mass equivalent to 300 million suns, is seen as it was just 500 million years after
同年8月，科学家宣布发现了迄今最遥远、最古老的超大质量黑洞，其盘踞在名为CAPERS-LRD-z9的星系中。这是JWST发现的又一个"小红点"星系，重量相当于3亿个太阳质量。如今观测到的正是它在大爆炸后仅5亿年时的模样
"When looking for black holes, this is about as far back as you can practically go," Anthony Taylor, a postdoctoral fellow at the Cosmic Frontier Center at the University of Texas at Austin, who led the discovery, said in a statement. "We're really pushing the boundaries of what current technology can detect."
领导这一发现的安东尼·泰勒德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校宇宙前沿中心博士后，他在一份声明中说：“在寻找黑洞时，这几乎是你实际能追溯最远的地方了，我们正在突破当前技术可以检测的界限。”
Read more here.
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August was a big month for black hole discoveries — not only did astronomers discover the most ancient black hole as mentioned above, but in the same month a separate team of researchers announced they have discovered what may turn out to be the most massive black hole ever seen.
八月是有关黑洞探索的重要月份，天文学家不仅发现了上面提到的最古老的黑洞，在同一个月，另一个研究小组也宣布他们可能发现了有史以来最大的黑洞。
Located in one of the most massive galaxies ever seen and 5 billion light-years from Earth, this black hole seems to have a mass equivalent to 36 billion suns. Measuring the mass of such a massive body at this kind of distance is tough, and this supermassive black hole has tough competition from Phoenix A, the central black hole of the Phoenix cluster, estimated to have a mass somewhere in the region of 100 billion suns.
这个黑洞位于有史以来最大质量的星系之一，距离地球50亿光年，大致相当于360亿倍太阳质量。在这种距离测量庞大物体的质量是很困难的，且这个超大质量黑洞与凤凰星团的中心黑洞凤凰A有着激烈的竞争，其质量估计在1000亿倍太阳质量的范围内。
"This is amongst the top 10 most massive black holes ever discovered, and quite possibly the most massive," Thomas Collett, study author and a professor at the University of Portsmouth in England, said in a statement.
英国朴茨茅斯大学教授托马斯·科利特是该研究的作者，他在一份声明中说：“这是迄今为止发现的十个大质量黑洞之一，且很有可能是最大的。”
Read more here.
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Who knows, maybe 2026 will deliver an even more massive black hole, or a brighter flare, or something we can't even currently comprehend. Whatever the case, it is certain that Space.com will be there for every exciting and mind-blowing discovery.
谁知道呢，也许2026年会出现一个更大的黑洞，或一个更亮的耀斑，甚至是一些我们目前无法理解的东西。无论如何，可以肯定的是，Space.com将会报道每一个令人兴奋和深入人心的发现。
