In data sent to Earth by ESA’s Gaia satellite, astronomers have now found the closest known black hole to Earth. It is nearly 1,600 light-years from Earth and orbits a star similar to our sun. Small shifts in this star’s position revealed the presence of its companion object, which the researchers named Gaia BH1.
There are an estimated 100 million stellar black holes in the Milky Way, our own galaxy. However, because these objects are very difficult to observe, only a small part of them has been detected to date.
A team led by Kareem El-Badry, who works at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, has now used a new method to detect a black hole so close to Earth that it closer than any other known so far.
Has ten times the mass of our sun
It is a so-called dormant black hole that has ten times the mass of our sun and orbits a sun-like star with an orbital period of 185.6 days. The distance between the star and its companion (Gaia BH1) is approximately equal to the average distance between the Earth and the Sun.
If the object were another star, it would inevitably be much brighter than its companion. Instead, neither the Gaia data nor follow-up observations from various telescopes show light from such a second star.
Located in the constellation of the Snake Bearer
This makes it clear to the researchers that Gaia BH1 must be a black hole. According to the data, it is located just 1,600 light-years away in the constellation Ophiuchus (Snake Bearer), making it much closer than the previous record holder, a so-called X-ray doppelganger.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
