Title:  A space mission to Earth’s nearest black hole: reality or science fiction?

Speaker: Cosimo Bambi

Institute: 复旦大学

Host: 王俊峰

Time: 2026.3.5 周四 14:30

Location: 物理楼 552

Abstract:

Black holes are the sources of the strongest gravitational fields in the present-day Universe, offering unparalleled opportunities to test Einstein's theory of General Relativity in the strong-field regime. In this talk, I will examine the prospect of sending small spacecraft on an interstellar mission to the nearest black hole. While highly speculative and fraught with technical challenges, such an endeavor is not entirely beyond the realm of possibility. Although the necessary technology does not yet exist, it may become available within the next 20 to 30 years. The mission itself could span 80 to 100 years, yet the scientific return — insights into the nature of black holes and the extremes of General Relativity — would be profound and potentially unattainable through other means.

Bio:

Cosimo Bambi is Professor at the Department of Physics at Fudan University. He received the Laurea degree from Florence University in 2003 and the PhD degree from Ferrara University in 2007. He worked as a postdoctoral research scholar at Wayne State University, IPMU/The University of Tokyo, and LMU Munich. He joined Fudan University at the end of 2012 under the 1000 Young Talents Program (青年千人计划). His main research interests focus on theoretical and observational studies on black holes. He has published more than 200 papers on high impact factor refereed journals as first or corresponding author, he has over 15,000 citations, and his h-index is 66 (Google Scholar). He has received a number of awards, including the Chinese Government Friendship Award (中国政府友谊奖) from the State Council in 2025, the Magnolia Gold Award (上海市白玉兰荣誉奖) from the Municipality of Shanghai in 2022, and the Xu Guangqi Prize from the Embassy of Italy in Beijing in 2018.

Related papers:

https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.14499

https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.14576