---
title: "Scientists Are Baffled By a Bizarre Black Hole-Like Object"
description: "A bizarre celestial object too big to be a neutron star but too small for a black hole could undo the rules astrophysicsts use to understand the universe."
date: "2020-06-30"
modified: "2020-06-30"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientists-baffled-bizarre-black-hole-object"
categories:
  - "Astrophysics"
  - "Black Holes"
  - "Physics"
  - "Science & Energy"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "astrophysics"
  - "black hole"
  - "neutron star"
  - "space"
  - "the digest"
---

# Scientists Are Baffled By a Bizarre Black Hole-Like Object

![A bizarre celestial object too big to be a neutron star but too small for a black hole could undo the rules astrophysicsts use to understand the universe.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/scientists-baffled-bizarre-black-hole-object.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: University of Warwick/Mark Garlick\</em\>*

## Mass Gap

Last week, astrophysicists announced a bizarre, [unprecedented celestial object](<https://futurism.com/astronomers-may-have-discovered-first-ever-black-neutron-star>) that sits smack in the middle of the theoretical divider separating black holes from neutron stars.

The object, too small to be a black hole and too large to be a neutron star according to existing models, has astronomers baffled about where this thing came from, *[Scientific American ](<https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mystery-object-blurs-line-between-neutron-stars-and-black-holes/>)*[reports](<https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mystery-object-blurs-line-between-neutron-stars-and-black-holes/>). But whatever this thing is, it makes perfectly clear that the rules we use to understand the universe aren't quite as solid as we expected.

## Middling Out

The problem is the object's unusual mass: at 2.6 times the mass of the Sun, it's 0.1 solar mass heavier than the theoretical upper limit for neutron stars, [according to research](<https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ab960f>) in *The Astrophysical Journal Letters*. But the smallest black holes we know about are at least five solar masses, putting the object in no man's land

"The idea of a mass gap as a true gap with nothing in it, I think, is getting progressively destroyed," Philippe Landry, a LIGO member at California State University, Fullerton, told *SciAm*. "This is going to be one nail in the coffin."

## Now What

Accepting that the object, which has been dubbed a "[black neutron star](<https://futurism.com/astronomers-may-have-discovered-first-ever-black-neutron-star>)," exists is just step one. Now astronomers have to grapple with where it came from, and whether it's a tiny black hole or the result of a merger.

"It could be that these objects are very difficult to make," Syracuse University astronomer Duncan Brown told *SciAm*, "but once in a blue moon, a supernova explosion lands you there."

**READ MORE:** [Mystery Object Blurs Line between Neutron Stars and Black Holes](<https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mystery-object-blurs-line-between-neutron-stars-and-black-holes/>) \[*Scientific American*\]

**More on whatever this thing is:** *[Astronomers May Have Discovered First-Ever “Black Neutron Star”](<https://futurism.com/astronomers-may-have-discovered-first-ever-black-neutron-star>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)