Testing Black Holes with Interstellar Missions: I. Orbiting Probes
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
2026-05-20 v1
Abstract
Recently, we showed that the possibility of an interstellar mission to the closest black hole, while highly speculative and extremely challenging, is not completely unrealistic within the next few decades. Since such a mission might last around a century and require significant financial and human resources, it is crucial to assess whether it can truly study black holes and test General Relativity at levels unattainable by observational facilities in the Solar System for many years. In this manuscript, we assume the capability to decelerate the spacecraft and present a preliminary study of how probes orbiting a black hole could test the nature of the compact object.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2605.19176,
title = {Testing Black Holes with Interstellar Missions: I. Orbiting Probes},
author = {Leda Gao and Cosimo Bambi and Yi Fan and Temurbek Mirzaev and Abdurakhmon Nosirov and Andrea Santangelo},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.19176},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
21 pages, 10 figures