Future technology could one day allow a miniature, laser-propelled spacecraft — no heavier than a paperclip — to travel to a nearby black hole, according to a bold new proposal published on Thursday (Aug. 7).

The ambitious mission would aim to test the limits of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity in one of the universe's most extreme environments. It may sound like the plot of a sci-fi novel, but to cosmologist Cosimo Bambi, this idea is rooted in real physics — and could be achievable within our lifetime.

"It may sound really crazy, and in a sense closer to science fiction," Bambi, who is a researcher in the department of physics at Fudan University in China, said in a statement. "But people said we'd never detect gravitational waves because they're too weak. We did—100 year

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