{
  "id": 17770,
  "title": "Astronomers spot best-yet example of a wandering supermassive black hole",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/07/29/astronomers-spot-best-yet-example-of-a-wandering-supermassive-black",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-07-29T14:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Scientific American",
    "slug": "scientific-american",
    "url": "https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/astronomers-spot-best-yet-example-of-a-wandering-supermassive-black-hole/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Astronomers have discovered the best example yet of a supermassive black hole wandering freely in space. Typically, these colossal black holes are found at the centers of galaxies, but this one was located over 750 million light-years away, far from its galactic home. The discovery was made possible by an exceptionally bright event—a tidal disruption event (TDE) triggered when a star was torn apart by the black hole's powerful gravitational forces. This TDE emitted a flare of light 10 billion times brighter than our Sun, allowing the astronomers to spot the black hole despite its remote location. The wandering black hole, with a mass one million times that of our Sun, is located in the constellation Cetus within a massive galaxy. This extraordinary find was made possible by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), which continuously scans the night sky for significant celestial events.",
  "summary": "Giant black holes adrift in deep space are normally invisible—unless they’re dining on stars",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": "https://urgent.news/ill/17770.png",
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Sci.News",
        "title": "Astronomers Spot Wandering Supermassive Black Hole Far From Its Galaxy’s Heart",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/07/29/astronomers-spot-wandering-supermassive-black-hole-far-from-its",
        "published": "2026-07-29T13:36:38.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}