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Earth's next 'mini-moon' could create a gold rush for asteroid miners

Almost a year ago, the space science community watched as an asteroid entered Earth's orbit and circled above our heads for almost two months before departing. Scientists usually track such asteroids because of the risk they pose for life on Earth. But although they can pose a threat to our planet, asteroids are also potentially worth many billions of dollars because of the precious metals they contain. This is why space entrepreneurs and scientists are gearing up for the next asteroid visit, with the aim of capturing future space rocks and mining them. Most asteroids orbit the sun within rings between Mars and Jupiter known as the asteroid belts. And importantly, some of those asteroids are full of metals that could be used to make laptops and smartphones; metals such as platinum, cobalt, iron, and even gold. NASA once calculated that the metals in these asteroids could be worth $100 million for every person on Earth, and mining even just 10 of the most profitable asteroids could yield up to $1.5 trillion. A major question remains: Can we access these metals? Every so often, Jupiter's strong gravity sends an asteroid hurtling through the solar system, sometimes towards Earth. Last year, one of these asteroids entered Earth's orbit: asteroid 2024 PT5 from the Arjuna asteroid belt that's about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from the sun. 2024 PT5 was called a "mini-moon," though this term was used loosely. A mini-moon is supposed to complete one full orbit of the Earth, but asteroid 2024 PT5 exited Earth's gravitational pull before it could make a whole trip. Still, the space rock mirrored our true moon's orbit overhead, earning it the mini-moon moniker — and it was indeed full of rare earth metals. While asteroid samples have been brought to Earth for research purposes before, such as with NASA's OSIRIS-REx and Japan's Hayabusa2 missions, the cost of these journeys has fallen between about $10 million and $150 million per gram of material, which would bankrupt any company trying to turn a regular profit. Part of the reason for this high price tag is most asteroids are usually so far away that mining them isn’t profitable. Fuel and equipment costs alone would add up quite a bit. However, that's where mini-moons come in; these objects represent a far more achievable target for asteroid mining. After all, they're right there above our heads. In fact, last year's mini-moon sighting prompted many space-mining startups to make plans for more unexpected asteroid visits. "If we had our systems up and running, we could go and get it," Joel Sercel, founder and CEO of TransAstra, an asteroid mining company, told Space.com at the time 2024 PT5 was in orbit. "We would fly out to it, capture it, and put it in a very stable orbit with a very small amount of rocket propellant. Then we have a permanent resource in space that we own." There is one complication, however: Space entrepreneurs and scientific researchers disagree about how common mini-moons are, and fewer than 10 have been spotted within the last decade. What this means is that while there are many plans of how to capture these asteroids and use their metals, no one has ever pulled it off. What experts all agree on, though, is that reaching an asteroid in general is expensive and difficult. "Sometimes they're really hot; sometimes very cold," Mustafa Hassanalian, an associate professor at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, told Space.com. "That's something that makes it challenging, [along with the] radiation, it makes any missions to asteroids complex." At any given time, there are about a dozen small asteroids circling the Earth, but most of them aren't big enough to make a trip worthwhile — but again, mini moons are just the right size to make mining them feasible economically.. The challenge lies in finding them. But a team of scientists at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which holds the world's largest digital camera, has previously said that advances in asteroid detection will allow for better detection of mini-moons. With the observatory releasing its first images in June, space mining seems only a matter of time. Chinese companies control between 80-90% of rare earth metal exports, which has pushed private companies in the U.S. and elsewhere to look for new sources in unlikely places. Copper — needed for wind turbines, nickel — required for solar panels, and platinum — vital for hydrogen-powered fuel cells — are found in abundance in certain asteroids. Most rare materials on Earth come from previous asteroid impacts, but the Earth's gravity has pulled heavier elements into its core over billions of years, leaving us with only a small amount of these metals close enough to the surface for mining. The first asteroid ‘soft landing’ was unintentional, when NASA touched down NEAR Shoemaker on asteroid Eros in 2001 after it ran out of propellant. However, scientists were surprised the spacecraft survived the landing at all, and the mission shut down two weeks later due to cold temperatures on the asteroid. Since then, multiple nations have made contact with asteroids, with Japan following soon after with Hayabusa which launched in 2003, and Hayabusa2 that lifted off in 2014. NASA reached another asteroid with the aforementioned OSIRIS-REx mission, launching on Sept. 8, 2016 and dropping off its samples on Sept. 24, 2023, becoming the latest space mission to return asteroid samples for testing. China launched Tianwen-2 on May 28, 2025, and it is set to return asteroid samples in 2027. So, why don't we have a booming asteroid mining industry already? Well, aside from the cost issues mentioned, asteroids spin very quickly, which makes landing on them and extracting metals difficult. Sercel from TransAstra says that the spacecraft that take back asteroid samples aren't really "landing" on the asteroids at all. Because asteroids don't have strong gravity like planets, there's nothing to keep the shapecraft tethered to the floor. Furthermore, because asteroids don't have atmospheres like Earth or Mars, they're vulnerable to the impact of thousands of tiny particles that kick up clouds of dust that would clog up any machinery. On previous mining missions, scientists got around this problem by using a robotic arm to grab pieces of debris before moving quickly away, but this tactic works only on small amounts of material. As a result, instead of landing directly on the asteroid, space entrepreneurs are looking at ways to harvest the precious metals within asteroids without getting so close to the objects. Tethers Unlimited, a company born from the mind of science-fiction-author-turned-researcher R. L. Forward and researcher-turned-science-fiction-writer Rob Hoyt, worked with NASA to design a means of catching asteroids instead of landing on them. The company's satellites were designed to launch a gigantic net at the asteroid and capture it before towing it into Earth's gravity, where smaller satellites would chip the metal away and bring it down to the planet more affordably. The net line is angled to stop the asteroid from tumbling and slow it down — the same way an ice skater might extend her leg to reduce spin speed. But NASA ended funding for Tethers, so the design wasn't produced in time to capture the mini-moon 2024 PT5. Hassanalian, a researcher at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, takes inspiration from the insect kingdom — with a design that deploys a net in front of an asteroid's path, capturing it in a spiderweb-like mesh. Meanwhile, TransAstra's design also involves catching the asteroid instead of landing on it — but it does so using a more powerful tool than its competitors: the sun. TransAstra plans to exploit what it calls "concentrated sunlight" to break up a water-rich asteroid. The company would deploy a giant plastic bag — made out of polyamide — to wrap the asteroid in, which Sercel compared to Mylar aluminum wrap or clingfilm, before using what amounts to a sophisticated magnifying glass to melt away the asteroid (which is mostly ice) and leaving the precious metals behind. The mini moon is the “perfect size” for such a venture, says Sercel, although the mini moon unfortunately arrived before TransAstra was ready to take advantage of the opportunity. The company's eyes are set on the next celestial visitor, which could arrive anywhere from a year to a decade from now. "It's not like you have the opportunity [to mine a mini-moon] every month," Hoyt, of Tethers Unlimited, told Space.com "You could take a look at parking it in orbit around the Earth, but that would take a lot of propellant. You also need to be very careful you don't drop it on the Earth." In 2029, NASA will launch its most ambitious asteroid-exploration mission to date, sending the Psyche probe to map out a metal-rich asteroid with the same name. It could set the stage for the first interstellar industry. The asteroid 16 Psyche is thought to be worth quadrillions of dollars (that's 15 zeros), according to Lindy Elkins-Tanton, the lead scientist on the NASA mission, quoted in Global News. It could be enough to crash the global economy, depending on how quickly the materials could be transported to Earth. Rare earth suppliers also face a problem familiar to the oil and gas industry: an increase in supply leading to a drop in prices, which makes extraction of raw materials less profitable. And it would appear that most companies looking to bag an asteroid aren't successful. Tethers had to close down after its funding ran out and its co-founder Robert Lull Forward, an American physicist and author of 11 novels, passed away. Hoyt, the remaining founder, is also turning his hand toward writing a science fiction novel, one where the same devices he worked on for NASA can live on through imagination. For now, without the enormous amount of patient investment needed to make such businesses a reality, that's where most asteroid mining technology will remain.

2026-01-29 查兴宇 航空 英-中
DJI Neo 2 drone review

Just a year after the DJI Neo was released, DJI hasn't wasted any time in producing a new and seriously improved version, the DJI Neo 2. It's not often we see a drone model replaced so quickly, but it seems that DJI is keen to dominate the selfie drone market. This includes the impressive HoverAir X1 Pro and ProMax models. With the new features, which include improved camera performance, Omnidirectional Obstacle Avoidance with combined vision and LiDAR sensors and 49GB of internal storage, up from 20GB in the Neo, to name but a few new features. The Omnidirectional Obstacle Avoidance is particularly useful because it significantly reduces the risk of crashes when using intelligent tracking modes. The DJI Neo 2 is one of the best camera drones available since it does what it's designed to do incredibly well. This small and lightweight drone maintains its FPV cinewhoop-style design with built-in propeller guards. This makes it safer to fly close to people and obstacles. It can also be controlled without a phone or controller, with the DJI Fly app, with a DJI RC-N3 controller and with DJI FPV accessories for FPV flight. So, plenty of options to suit a wide range of drone pilots. What's so impressive about this drone is that it's inexpensive. This makes it ideal for beginners and those looking for a small, fun and easy-to-use drone. So, if you're looking for a drone that can intelligently track you on your adventures, the DJI Neo 2 could be the perfect solution. Back to top Cinewhoop-style design Compact and lightweight Several kits available The Neo 2 doesn't look drastically different from the Neo, but there are some obvious upgrades. It's safe to say that even the untrained eye could tell that the two drones are related. It maintains the FPV cinewhoop-style design with completely enclosed propellers that both protect them in crashes and keep people safe when the drone is intelligently tracking people. The main visual and technological differences between the Neo and Neo 2 are the transceiver on the rear that comes with the Neo 2 in the Fly More Bundles. This allows the drone to connect to controllers and goggles. There's also a display on the front that shows the active flight mode, a LiDAR sensor and a couple of obstacle avoidance sensors. The display is useful because it makes it so much easier to identify the active flight mode when using the drone without the app or a controller. Controls on the side of the drone allow you to scroll through the flight modes. The drone weighs 5.6 oz / 160g with the transceiver or 5.3 oz / 151g without, which is incredibly lightweight, but has a fixed rather than folding design. It's still compact at just 167x171x54 mm / 6.57x6.73x2.13 in, and you can easily slip it into a backpack, handbag or camera bag. The Fly More Bundles strangely don't include a carry bag. The kit sent for review was the DJI Neo 2 Fly More Combo and includes a DJI RC-N3 controller. This features a telescopic phone holder at the top and allows you to fly the Neo 2 like a camera drone. This will likely be the most popular kit, although the Motion Controller Fly More Bundle with FPV goggles is an attractive option. Excellent flight modes and performance Omnidirectional Obstacle Sensing 49GB of internal storage Despite its FPV-style design, the Neo 2, like its predecessor, flies well as a camera drone using the DJI RC-N3 controller. In fact, even the on-screen digital controls for manual flight in the DJI Fly app work well and are useful when you want to keep your carrying weight to a minimum. This, however, is a selfie drone that's designed to capture selfies and track moving subjects, whether you're running, cycling, skiing or walking. It does a fantastic job of these thanks to its intelligent flight modes, which include Follow, Skiing Follow, Cycling Follow, SelfieShot, Dronie, Helix, Rocket, Circle, Boomerang, Dolly Zoom and Spotlight alongside Manual Control. This is further enhanced by the addition of Omnidirectional Obstacle Avoidance with combined vision and LiDAR sensors. When following you in complex environments, the Neo 2 does a fantastic job of avoiding obstacles and keeping the subject centered in the frame. You also get Quickshots, which are DJI automated flight patterns for capturing professional-looking video at the touch of a button. These include Dronie, Circle, Rocket, Spotlight, Helix and Boomerang, so there are tons of flight modes to enjoy. All this is great for beginners and people who want to capture themselves on their adventures. The 1606mAh batteries are advertised as being able to last for up to 19 minutes, although in reality, you're looking at around 10 minutes of flight before Return to Home is initiated. This is typical for selfie drones and DJI FPV drones, of which the Neo 2 is one, if you choose the Fly More Bundle that comes with a Motion Controller and goggles, or if you already own compatible accessories. This is a drone that relies entirely on internal storage since it doesn't have an SD card slot. So the increase in storage to 49GB is a welcome upgrade. The Neo 2 can save up to 105 minutes of 4K/60fps video, up to 175 minutes of 4K/30fps video or 241 minutes of 1080p/60fps video, which should be more than enough storage for most people. Once photos and videos have been captured, you can connect to the drone via WiFi with your phone to transfer the footage at up to 80 MB/s using the DJI Fly app. This is great for mobile editing and quick sharing, and you can download to a computer using a USB-C cable. Other potentially useful and interesting features include Gesture Control, where the Neo 2 can be controlled using a range of gestures, and is useful when you don't have a controller. Most people will often have their phone with the DJI Fly app. I've never been a fan of gesture control myself, but I appreciate its usefulness. Then there's voice control, where you say your commands to the DJI Fly app, which then transmits them to the drone. 12MP 1/2-inch sensor Photos are only captured in JPEG Excellent image stabilization The Neo 2's image quality is good for photos and much better for video, with the former only captured in JPEG format and no Raw option available, which is a shame. It's certainly not designed to be a photography powerhouse like the DJI Mini 5 Pro, but this is to be expected from a selfie drone with great subject tracking capabilities. The Neo 2 features a 1/2-inch sensor, which allows for the image Rocksteady Electronic Image Stabilization to completely smooth video footage. During testing, the Neo 2 was practically shaken, and although movement could be seen, the Electronic Image Stabilization did an incredible job – truly impressive. The sensor has a 12MP resolution and provides an equivalent focal length of 16.5 mm. The aperture is fixed at f/2.2, while focus is between 70 cm and infinity. ISO can be set between 100 and 12,800. Video can be captured in 4K at up to 60 FPS, 1080p at up to 60 FPS and vertical shooting 2.7K (9:16) 1512×2688 px is available up to 60 FPS. Please note the footage below was shot in 4K, but our video player only plays in HD. Video is captured in the Normal/Standard color profile, so it can be used straight out of the camera, and the maximum video bitrate is 80 Mbps. Rocksteady Electronic image Stabilization keeps the video smooth and the horizon straight, producing what is a remarkably impressive effect that’s as good as a mechanical gimbal. This system is ideal for the Neo 2 with its two-axis gimbal that offers a tilt movement so you can adjust the camera angle. The DJI Neo 2 was released on November 13, 2025, and comes in at a slightly higher price than the DJI Neo. That's really not an issue, though, because the Neo 2 is packed with many more new and advanced features, making it a much more rounded offering. The DJI Neo 2 costs £209 drone only, which means you get one battery and can control the drone with the DJI Fly app. The DJI Neo 2 Fly More Combo costs £349 and includes the drone, three batteries, a battery charging hub and a DJI RC-N3 controller. If you're feeling a little more adventurous, you could opt for the DJI Neo 2 Motion Fly More Combo, which costs £509. This includes the extra batteries and charging hub alongside a Motion Controller and FPV goggles. All options are reasonably priced. Unfortunately, the DJI Neo 2 isn't available in the US through DJI, but you may be able to get your hands on one another way. For those who can get hold of a Neo 2, if you're looking for either a selfie drone, an inexpensive beginner drone or an inexpensive and easy-to-fly FPV drone, the Neo 2 is a great option. The fact that it can cover all of these bases, as well as having the ability to be used with the intelligent flight modes, drone only, or manually with the DJI Fly app, makes it incredibly versatile. The new and improved features, alongside the Omnidirectional Obstacle Avoidance, are also positive factors that work in the drone's favour. If you're looking for a camera drone specifically, you might want to consider other models. The HoverAir X1 Pro is another selfie drone, but this one has a folding design, which makes it more compact for transportation and storage. Performance is excellent when capturing up to 4K video, and there's a range of useful accessories available. The Potensic Atom 2 is an affordable sub-250g drone that is a standard camera drone and a great alternative as a more powerful camera drone. It can capture video up to 4K and photos in both JPEG and Raw, with a range of useful features available. The DJI Mini 5 Pro is the best sub-250g drone available and also offers excellent subject tracking. It's not a selfie drone, but with its advanced subject tracking and excellent image quality, it's a much more versatile option than the Neo 2 in many ways. Back to top

2026-01-29 查兴宇 航空 英-中
2026 is the year humanity will finally go back to the moon

Astronauts haven't visited our nearest celestial neighbor since 1972. That's when NASA astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison "Jack" Schmitt spent three days on the moon before rejoining Apollo 17 crewmate NASA astronaut Ron Evans aboard their command module in lunar orbit. After two more days circling the moon, the trio ignited their engine on a return trajectory back to Earth. As they flew away, theirs became the last sets of eyes to see the moon up close. Now, after decades of ever-elongating timelines, evolving mission frameworks and years of delays, NASA is ready to go back. The U.S. space agency's Artemis program faces its second mission in 2026, and it will be the first to carry a crew of astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft. The Artemis 2 mission is designed to fly its crew once around the moon before returning them to Earth over the course of about 10 days, during which the astronauts will become the first in a generation to see the moon up close. Artemis 2 follows the November 2022 launch of an uncrewed Orion on NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on Artemis 1. At the time, NASA had hoped to fly Artemis 2 in 2023, but damage to Orion's heatshield during atmospheric reentry pushed that goalpost by a year, and then another year. Through its series of planned Artemis missions, NASA plans to establish a permanent outpost on the moon. From there, the agency hopes to develop and mature the technologies needed to expand deeper into the solar system to places like Mars. A lot of U.S. spaceflight discourse this past year has focused on when NASA will get boots on the lunar surface, and whether U.S. astronauts will land on the moon's southern polar region before a group of Chinese taikonauts plants their flag there first. When President Trump's fiscal year 2026 budget proposal was released, the administration put a stronger emphasis on NASA's human exploration of space —  despite cutting NASA's funding by nearly a quarter and its science programs virtually in half. That emphasis, though, put a spotlight on the Artemis program and invited deeper scrutiny of NASA's launch system and lunar lander development. Under NASA's current plan, Artemis 2 and 3 rely on the agency's SLS rocket to launch its Orion spacecraft to cislunar space, where it will dock with the Gateway space station, for transfer to a lunar lander for the last leg down to the surface. NASA's Human Landing Services (HLS) contract for that vehicle was awarded to SpaceX for a version of their Starship vehicle currently being developed to transport Artemis 3 astronauts down to the moon's surface — a controversial decision which elicited industry pushback and, more recently, one that NASA has begun backpedalling on. Criticisms of both SLS and Starship have called the program's architecture and timeline into question. Before its first launch in 2022, SLS spent more than a decade in development at a cost of nearly $50 billion since 2006. In the time it took to turn the SLS design schematics to a fully realized and assembled rocket, SpaceX introduced the world to reliable rocket reusability — not something SLS was designed for. And, with the successful recovery and relaunch of SpaceX's newest Super Heavy booster this year, some have questioned whether SLS's $4 billion-per-launch price tag is the most cost-effective way to send Orion to orbit. Starship is another story. SpaceX seems to have worked out much of the kinks developing the Super Heavy booster responsible for launching Starship — though a recent mishap of the booster's latest version did rupture during a pressurization test. The company has successfully caught three Super Heavy boosters using the giant "Mechazilla" chopstick-like arms attached to the rocket's launch tower, and managed to refly one of those boosters during one of Starship's 2025 test flights. Starship, however, did not have as good a year. Of its five launches in 2025, Starship only completed its mission objectives on the final two. The development delays have raised concerns about the vehicle's readiness for Artemis 3, which NASA had hoped to launch in 2027, but internal SpaceX documents obtained by Politico in November indicate the company doesn't expect Starship to be ready for that mission until 2028. U.S. lawmakers, space industry leaders and even former NASA administrators have spoken out publicly in criticism of Starship's delayed development, and are raising red flags that such delays could hand control of the moon to China. During testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee in September, former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine cautioned against positioning the Artemis program to become completely reliant on SpaceX for mission success. "Unless something changes, it is highly unlikely the United States will beat China's projected timeline," he said. That's a problem, experts say. The U.S. and China are both eyeing the moon's southern polar region to set up camp, where scientists believe there is an abundance of water ice — a valuable resource that can be used to provide astronauts with everything from suitable drinking water to rocket fuel. It's also a matter of national security. "If our adversaries achieve dominant space capabilities, it would pose a profound risk to America," Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said during the Commerce Committee hearing at which Bridenstine testified. NASA, too, is feeling the pressure. Unsatisfied with SpaceX's progress, acting agency administrator Sean Duffy announced in October that NASA was considering reopening the HLS contract to other bidders, including Blue Origin, who objected to Starship's selection over their Blue Moon lander, which is originally slated for Artemis 5. Now, NASA may decide to go with whichever lander is ready first, but SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has voiced skepticism over the competing company's ability to qualify their lander before SpaceX does so with Starship. For its part, China's lunar ambitions and timeline to achieve them are about on par with the U.S., only the speed at which they're developing the technologies to accomplish those goals is quickly worrying those in the U.S. space industry who see stalls in Artemis' evolution. In 2025, China has continued to close key technical gaps, advancing work on its Long March 10 lunar rocket, next-generation crewed spacecraft (named Mengzhou) and a crewed lunar lander. Beijing has also pressed ahead with reusable launch vehicle tests (though its most recent landing attempts were unsuccessful) reinforcing a development cadence that looks increasingly steady as Artemis faces schedule pressure. The question still remains which country will successfully land astronauts (or taikonauts) back on the moon first, but there's no denying which nation will be the first to fly a crew to lunar space in the new millennium. After Artemis 1, NASA named the crew of the upcoming Artemis 2 flight. The mission will be flown by NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman as Artemis 2 commander, Victor Glover as pilot, and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen as mission specialists. The quartet has spent the last three years training for every aspect of their flight around the moon, with a major ramp-up over the past year that has included NASA's broader Artemis team. "The consolidation and momentum that's building in the wider team — the flight control team, the launch control team — we are firing on all cylinders with those guys doing problem solving, answering questions that no one knows the real answer to," Koch told Space.com in an interview. "Every person that walks into every room is just ready to contribute the most that they can and to get to the right answer as a team," she said. Koch and the other members of the Artemis 2 crew are eager to launch on their mission, and if NASA's current schedule holds, they may get that opportunity as early as February 2026. NASA is targeting no earlier than Feb. 5 for the first Artemis 2 launch window, and may roll the mission's completed SLS rocket from the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, to Launch Complex-39B as early as January. If they run into another delay, the space agency has determined additional launch windows in the months to follow, through April. Once the day of their launch does arrive, the Artemis 2 crew will board the Orion spacecraft and ride SLS into Earth's orbit for a mission that will last roughly ten days. Should the launch go smoothly and checkouts of Orion's systems while in orbit come back nominal, a translunar injection burn of SLS's upper stage will propel Orion into a free-return trajectory around the moon, slingshotting the spacecraft around the moon and back to Earth on a course in the shape of a figure-eight. The trajectory doesn't fully place Orion in lunar orbit, but it guarantees the spacecraft and crew's return to Earth regardless of any anomalies they might encounter around the moon. While the main objective of Artemis 2 is to put Orion through its paces on its first mission carrying astronauts, the crew will also conduct a series of science experiments. Some of that research involves the astronauts themselves, who will become their own biomedical subjects to gather in-flight data on the effects the human body experiences beyond low Earth orbit for the first time since Apollo, including investigations into things like radiation exposure and the immune system. In addition to humanity's long-awaited return to the moon, Artemis 2 is breaking ground in other historical ways as well. Depending on when it launches, Orion's flight around the moon may take the Artemis 2 crew further from Earth than any previous crewed mission — potentially breaking the record set during Apollo 13. Koch and Glover will also be making history in their own right, as the first woman and first person of color to fly to the moon. Thus, for all the uncertainty surrounding Artemis' long-term architecture, Artemis 2 represents something far simpler. It will send humans beyond low Earth orbit for the first time in more than half a century, reestablishing a capability the U.S. at one time may have taken for granted. Whether Artemis ultimately fulfills its promise of sustained lunar exploration, or is reshaped by politics, budgets and competition with China, the program's first crewed flight around the moon will mark a definitive turning point. In 2026, humanity isn't just planning to return to lunar space — it's actually going.

2026-01-28 查兴宇 航空 英-中
The biggest black hole breakthroughs of 2025

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. 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. 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. 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 "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. 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. 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. "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!" Read more about this cosmic runaway here. 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. "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." Read more about these space tornadoes here. 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. 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. "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." Read more about this discovery here. 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. 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. "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." Someone pass the Pepto. Read more here. 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. 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. 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." Read more here. 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 "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." Read more here. 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. 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. "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. Read more here. 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.

2026-01-28 查兴宇 航空 英-中

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