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Astronomers have captured images of a rogue black hole. It’s only 12 million light-years away. And it is erupting.

The phenomenon is even more interesting since the black hole is erupting. And the black hole has a mass equal to 55 million of Earth’s sun. The eruption astronomers captured on film has a mass equal to 16 times the full Moon in the sky. In other words, this is big.

An army of international scientists, engineers, and astronomers have been studying the mass since it was detected in 2011. And one research study was released in January.

Originally it was believed they had spotted a “possible microlensing event." These types of events take place when the gravitational force of an object causes the light of a star to bend. 

This light refraction is sometimes seen around black holes. And happens because the light is being pulled into the dark. Light is also often bending around stars or white dwarfs.

They explored the microlensing event theory for years. And were hoping to catch a glimpse of the black hole they suspected was there all along.  The theory was disproved. And everything led them to understand that this was a rogue black hole.

Rogue black hole proves Einstein’s theory

The reason that this rogue black hole has gotten so much attention from the scientific community is that it is not like other black holes. Previous discoveries have shown that black holes are only found in binary systems.

So seeing this black hole all by itself, without a star is intriguing. It is now being theorized that there are other black holes out there. And we just can’t see them.

According to Stanford Professor Roger Blandford, an expert in physics and particle physics, this phenomenon validates Einstein’s theory of relativity.

“Fifty years ago, when astrophysicists started speculating about how the magnetic field might behave close to a black hole, they had no idea that one day we might have the techniques to observe this directly and see Einstein’s general theory of relativity in action,” Blandford, a co-author of one of the latest studies on the rogue black hole phenomenon said.