Astronomers operating a telescope have discovered a black hole “near” Earth. Gemini Northin Hawaii (USA).

The discovery was published last Wednesday (02), in Royal Astronomical Society Monthly Noticesleading scientific journal on astronomy and astrophysics.

Gaia BH1, Earth’s “neighbor” black hole

Named Gaia BH1, the black hole weighs about 10 times the mass of our Sun and is located “only” 1,600 light-years away, which can be considered close to our solar system. But we can be sure that this does not pose a danger to our existence.

A distance of 1600 light-years is considered – given the vastness of the universe – small, as if this black hole were there, nearby. But since we have the technology to go to this place, and it lives in another constellation, Ophiuchus, we can breathe a sigh of relief.

🇧🇷We report the discovery of a bright star, similar to the Sun, orbiting a dim object. We identified the system as a black hole candidate using its astrometric orbital solution obtained from the Gaia mission.”, the astronomers describe in a published paper. 🇧🇷We have not found any plausible astrophysical scenarios that could explain the orbit without the involvement of a black hole.🇧🇷

Although black holes suck in everything that comes close to them, even light, Gaia BH1 did not play this role. This is because it is dormant, which is why the star it orbits still exists, and also why scientists have had such a hard time identifying it as a black hole.

🇧🇷I have been searching for dormant black holes for the past four years using a wide variety of datasets and methods.”, — said astrophysicist El-Badri, one of the authors of the article. The group was only able to make sure that they were actually observing a black hole after analyzing data on the object’s gravitational influence on a nearby star that orbits Gaia BH1 at a distance similar to the Earth’s distance from the Sun.

The team of scientists will now focus on studying what led to the formation of this black hole and how a star close to it survived its formation. Thanks to this, they will be able to estimate how many dormant objects, such as this black hole, may exist near us and how they appeared.

This optical illusion will make you feel like you are falling into a black hole.
The researchers also demonstrated the Asahi glowing illusion.

Source: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

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