# Astronomers Discover Rare 'Wandering' Black Hole 30,000 Light-Years From Its Galaxy's Center

*2026-07-27 22:01 UTC · Science · 2 min read*

> UNC Chapel Hill astronomers used an AI classifier to spot a rare tidal disruption event caused by a black hole far outside its galaxy's core, the farthest offset ever recorded.

Astronomers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have identified one of the rarest black hole events ever recorded: a star torn apart roughly 30,000 light-years from the center of its host galaxy, WISEA J014656.04-152214.7 — the farthest offset ever measured for an optically discovered tidal disruption event (TDE).

The flare, designated TDE 2025abcr, was produced by a roughly 1-million-solar-mass black hole that appears to be "wandering" far outside its galaxy's core, rather than sitting at the center like most known supermassive black holes. Researchers flagged the event using an AI classifier called tdescore, built by Robert Stein at the University of Maryland and NASA Goddard, then confirmed it with the SOAR Telescope in Chile. TDEs are exceptionally rare, occurring roughly once every 100,000 years per galaxy.

"The tidal disruption event we discovered happened tens of thousands of light-years away from the center," said UNC Ph.D. student Jonathan Carney, a co-author of the study published July 27 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Assistant professor Igor Andreoni called such flares "cosmic billboards" that reveal otherwise invisible black holes, while postdoctoral researcher Akash Anumarlapudi said the AI tool "removes the assumption that these events only happen in the galactic center" — opening the door to finding more wandering black holes, likely relics of past galaxy mergers.

## Sources

- [phys.org](https://phys.org/news/2026-07-astronomers-universe-rarest-black-hole.html)

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TechTools News · https://techtools.cz/tools/news/article/2084-astronomers-discover-rare-wandering-black-hole-30-000-light-years-from-its
Česká verze: https://techtools.cz/tools/news/clanek/2157-astronomove-objevili-vzacnou-bloudici-cernou-diru-30-000-svetelnych-let-od