Bold claim: The idea of visiting a black hole could shift from sci‑fi to science fact sooner than you think. Cosimo Bambi, an astrophysicist at Fudan University, argues that after we’ve learned to image black holes and detect gravitational waves, visiting them becomes a logical next step. The question is where to go. The famously distant Sagittarius A* lies about 26,000 light-years away, and the nearest known stellar-mass black hole, Gaia-BH1, sits roughly 1,560 light-years away. Bambi suggests we might not need to travel such vast distances; there could be much closer black holes, perhaps as near as 20–25 light-years away.
This idea rests on a grain of plausibility, not pure fantasy. In 2023, research from the University of Padua in Italy and the University of Barcelona in Spain indicated stellar-mass black holes could exist within the Hyades open cluster, a loose gathering of stars around 150 light-years from Earth. Their simulations only matched the cluster’s mass and size when black holes were included in the model, hinting that nearby hidden black holes could exist.
The concept of a tiny, fuel-light probe helps make the journey seem possible. Borrowing from Breakthrough Starshot, Bambi envisions nanocrafts—small chips no heavier than a paperclip—attached to ultra-thin light sails. A ground-based, high-powered laser would propel these sails by pushing photons, eliminating the need for heavy onboard fuel. The goal is to reach about 100 million miles per hour, roughly one-third the speed of light. At that pace, a probe could traverse interstellar distances far faster than conventional rockets.
If a black hole truly sits 20–25 light-years away, the math changes in interesting ways. At one-third light speed, the voyage would take around 70 years. But the mission wouldn’t end upon arrival: the probe would need to transmit data back, and at light speed that homeward signal would take about 20 years. The engineers who designed the craft might never witness its discoveries in their lifetimes.
If the nearest black holes aren’t real or aren’t as close as hoped, the Hyades cluster at about 150 light-years remains a viable alternative target. In that scenario, the journey would stretch to roughly 420 years at the same speed—no longer a mission for one generation but a message passed along for many, a botanical-like seed of knowledge sown for descendants to discover centuries later.
All of this is far from tomorrow. The laser system required to accelerate sails to relativistic speeds doesn’t yet exist, and the microprobes with enough onboard capability to photograph a black hole and relay results aren’t built. Yet Bambi believes the relevant technologies could emerge within about 30 years, driven by cheaper components and rapid miniaturization. He acknowledges the premise sounds like science fiction, but he points to milestones once deemed impossible: gravitational waves detected a century after prediction, and the black hole shadows imaged after decades of work. For him, visiting a black hole is simply the next item on a long list of breakthroughs that seemed crazy until they happened.
