Presentation #301.02 in the session Stellar/Compact II.
When a massive star goes supernova, it is expected that the anisotropies in the explosion can impart a recoil on the compact remnant. This recoil is often called a natal kick. While the population of galactic pulsars has let us understand the neutron star natal kicks to some degree, the kicks of black hole remnants remain poorly understood. I will show how wide binaries with a luminous star and a black hole - detected either through astrometry or radial velocity measurements - can be used to constrain natal kicks with minimal modeling in a data-driven way. I will then show how from first principles, we can use these natal kicks to constrain the anisotropy of the supernova itself. With the promise that Gaia will reveal more such binaries in upcoming data releases, it might soon be possible to study the distribution of black hole natal kicks. A better estimate of black hole natal kicks will also have important implications in understanding the origin of black hole binaries we see with gravitational waves.