Locating universe's missing black holes
Researchers from Vanderbilt University have found evidence for a class of black holes, called intermediate black holes (IMBHs), by digging into old data from LIGO and Virgo. These IMBHs are huge—100 to 300 times the mass of our Sun—and fill a big gap in what we know about how black holes grow and evolve. Astronomer Karan Jani described them as "cosmic fossils," since they could reveal clues about the universe's earliest days.
The hunt for IMBHs isn't over
The hunt isn't over. Future missions like the space-based LISA observatory (coming in the late 2030s) and possible lunar experiments from NASA's Artemis program aim to study these mysterious objects even more closely. All this could help us finally understand how some of the universe's first—and weirdest—objects came to be.