Astronomers find closest black hole to Earth, hints of more

[Judi Lynn]

Seth Borenstein, Ap Science Writer
Updated 9:33 am CDT, Wednesday, May 6, 2020



Photo: L. Calçada, AP
This illustration provided by the European Southern Observatory in May 2020 shows the orbits of the objects in the HR 6819 triple system. The group is made up of an inner binary with one star, orbit in blue, and a newly discovered black hole, orbit in red, as well as a third star in a wider orbit, blue. The team originally believed there were only two objects, the two stars, in the system. However, as they analysed their observations, they revealed a third, previously undiscovered body in HR 6819: a black hole, the closest ever found to Earth, about 1000 light years away. The black hole is invisible, but it makes its presence known by its gravitational pull, which forces the luminous inner star into an orbit. The objects in this inner pair have roughly the same mass and circular orbits. (L. Calçada/ESO via AP)


Meet your new but shy galactic neighbor: A black hole left over from the death of a fleeting young star.

European astronomers have found the closest black hole to Earth yet, so near that the two stars dancing with it can be seen by the naked eye.

Of course, close is relative on the galactic scale. This black hole is about 1,000 light-years away and each light-year is 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion kilometers). But in terms of the cosmos and even the galaxy, it is in our neighborhood, said European Southern Observatory astronomer Thomas Rivinius, who led the study published Wednesday in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

The previous closest black hole is probably about three times further, about 3,200 light-years, he said.

More:
https://www.chron.com/news/article/Astronomers-find-closest-black-hole-to-Earth-15250136.php

[Judi Lynn]

1. Newfound black hole is the closest one to Earth we've ever found

By Hanneke Weitering 5 hours ago


A newfound black hole may be the closest black hole to Earth, and you can spot its cosmic home in the night sky without a telescope.

The black hole, which is lurking 1,000 light-years from Earth in the southern constellation of Telescopium, belongs to a system with two companion stars that are bright enough to observe with the naked eye. But you won't be able to see the black hole itself; the massive object has such a strong gravitational pull that nothing — not even light — can escape it.

Although the astronomers could not directly observe the black hole, they were able to infer its presence based on its gravitational interactions with the other two objects in the system. By observing the system for several months, they were able to map out the stars' orbits and figure out that another massive, unseen object must be acting in the system.

The observations also showed that one of the two stars orbits the invisible object every 40 days, while the other star hangs out by itself at a much greater distance from the black hole.

More:
https://www.space.com/closest-black-hole-to-earth-discovery.html?utm_source=notification

[grumpyduck]

2. Hmmm... closer than the one at the center of the Milky Way.

Who wouldathunk?