← PBS Space Time · Season 2026

We Thought All Black Holes Came From Stars. We May Have Been Wrong.

S2026 · E14 · 04 Aug 2026 · 19 min

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LIGO may have detected a black hole that shouldn't exist, potentially revealing the first evidence of primordial black holes formed in the earliest moments after the Big Bang. But the bigger story is how a decade of gravitational-wave astronomy has transformed from proving Einstein right into a mature science capable of uncovering entirely new physics.