Researchers have derived an exact mathematical formula explaining how spacetime itself, without a star, can form a delicate, ordered structure called a spacetime crystal that can collapse into a black hole.

How this affects you

This discovery provides physicists with a new theoretical tool to understand black hole formation and could be relevant to the search for primordial black holes as dark matter candidates. More sensitive observatories like LIGO and Cosmic Explorer may use this theoretical groundwork to interpret future detections.