Scientists have measured the recoil velocity from a cataclysmic collision between two black holes for the very first time.
Gravitational waves are ripples in space-time first proposed to exist by Albert Einstein, and detected for the first time in 2015. Another first came in 2019, when scientists picked up a gravitational wave signal resulting from a violent merger between vastly different sized black holes. The size imbalance caused the newborn black hole to ricochet off into the universe in a phenomenon known as a "natal kick."
