Sending an artificial probe into a black hole may be in the cards within the coming decades, according to a Fudan University researcher who envisions a tiny, laser-propelled spacecraft—no heavier than a paperclip—venturing into one of the universe’s most mysterious objects.
The proposed mission would represent a bold step toward probing the limits of physics and general relativity. However, it remains a long-term goal, with a projected launch date two to three decades in the future and a mission duration that could stretch across an entire century. According to Cosimo Bambi, the researcher who outlined the concept in a recent paper, the two greatest challenges are finding a black hole close enough to Earth and building a probe durable enough to survive the journey.
Locating a Black Hole Target
Black holes are notoriously difficult to detect. Because they emit no light and reflect none, they are invisible to telescopes and can only be observed through their gravitational effects on nearby matter. While no black hole has been found in the immediate cosmic neighborhood, Bambi suggests that our current models of black hole formation indicate one could exist within 20 to 25 light-years of Earth.
“There have been new techniques to discover black holes,” says Bambi. “I think it’s reasonable to expect we could find a nearby one within the next decade.”
Making the Journey
Identifying a nearby black hole is within the reach of current technology—it’s primarily a matter of knowing where to look. Getting there, however, poses a significantly more challenging task. Bambi proposes using emerging propulsion technologies rather than traditional chemical rockets.
He envisions a nanocraft: a lightweight microchip attached to a light sail that would be propelled by Earth-based lasers. These lasers would beam photons at the sail, potentially pushing the probe to one-third the speed of light. At that velocity, the craft could reach a black hole 20 to 25 light-years away in about 70 years. Given the speed of light limits on data transmission, Bambi estimates it could take up to 100 years from launch to receive a return signal on Earth.
While current technology isn’t yet capable of producing such a nanocraft affordably, Bambi believes it is within the realm of possibility. He estimates that building the necessary laser system today would cost roughly one trillion euros, but ongoing research in interstellar propulsion is gradually closing the gap. Related efforts include Project Starlight at UC Santa Barbara, the Interstellar Probe at Johns Hopkins and NASA, NASA’s Sundiver concept, and the ESA’s Gossamer Roadmap.
“It may sound really crazy, and in a sense closer to science fiction,” says Bambi. “But people said we’d never detect gravitational waves because they’re too weak. We did—100 years later. People thought we’d never observe the shadows of black holes.”
“Now, 50 years later, we have images of two,” Bambi said.
Questions Finally Answered
A probe sent close to a black hole could provide scientists with a rare opportunity to answer fundamental questions. For instance, it could confirm whether black holes possess true event horizons—regions where gravity is so intense that nothing, not even light, can escape.
Bambi also emphasizes the mission’s importance to physics as a whole. By testing the behavior of matter and electromagnetic signals near a black hole, the probe could shed light on whether the laws of physics, as described by general relativity, hold under such extreme conditions.
“In the end, we want to test the gravitational field near the black hole and check if it is consistent with the predictions of General Relativity,” Bambi told The Debrief in an email. “We thus need to send several probes to the black hole and study the trajectories of these probes.
“We need that the probes can communicate each other by exchanging electromagnetic signals,” Bambi explained.
“From the modulation of these electromagnetic signal, we can reconstruct their trajectories and study how electromagnetic signals propagate in the strong gravitational field of the black hole,” Bambi added.
The paper, “An Interstellar Mission to Test Astrophysical Black Holes,” appeared in iScience on August 7, 2025.
Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.