--- title: "Astronomers Spot Black Hole the Size of Manhattan" description: "Astronomers claim to have spotted a tiny black hole that's only 20 kilometers across. That's tiny." date: "2019-11-01" modified: "2019-11-01" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/astronomers-black-hole-size-manhattan" categories: - "Astrophysics" - "Black Holes" - "Physics" - "Science & Energy" - "Space" tags: - "Black holes" - "neutron stars" - "physics" - "the digest" --- # Astronomers Spot Black Hole the Size of Manhattan ![Astronomers claim to have spotted a tiny black hole that's only 20 kilometers across. That's tiny.]() *\Image: NASA/Victor Tangermann\* ## Very Big, Very Small Black holes can get very big — in some instances, [big enough]() to encompass the orbits of all our solar system's planets. But not all are huge. Yesterday, [we wrote]() about a [new study]() by a team of astronomers from Ohio State University led by astronomer Todd Thompson, claiming to have discovered an entirely new and previously missing class of black holes. The extensive investigation, using data from a high-resolution infrared spectronomy instrument, found a black hole a mere 3.3 times the mass of the Sun. That may not sound very small, but it's vastly smaller than previously discovered specimens. And now we have an estimate for the diameter of such a relatively tiny black hole. Today, *MIT Technology Review* [reported]()[ that]() the discovered black hole is a mere 12 miles across — roughly the length of Manhattan. ## 12 Mile Futurism reached out to Thompson to confirm *MIT Tech*'s reporting. "Since the black hole mass has some degree of uncertainty, these are all reasonable numbers," he wrote in an email. "The Schwarzschild radius for a 3.3 Msun \[solar mass\] black hole is about 10km. So, the diameter is about 20 km. That's about 12 miles in diameter." If Thompson's calculations are correct, this new class of black holes could force us to rethink how we understand the way stars and other kinds of celestial objects are born and die. **READ MORE:** [Scientists have spotted a tiny black hole that may be just 12 miles across]() \[*MIT Technology Review*\] **More no the new classification:** *[Scientists Discover New Class of Tiny Black Holes]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()