A solitary celestial object — more massive than the sun, yet far smaller — is wandering the galaxy a few thousand light-years from Earth. It might be the first isolated stellar-mass black hole to be detected in the Milky Way. Or it might be one of the heaviest neutron stars known.
The interstellar wanderer first revealed itself in 2011, when its gravity briefly magnified the light from a more distant star. But at the time, its true nature eluded researchers. Now, two teams of astronomers have analyzed Hubble Space Telescope images to unmask the traveler’s identity — and have come to somewhat different conclusions.
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