Astronomers have discovered the closest black hole to Earth, 1,600 light-years away, in the Milky Way’s first detection of an inactive stellar-mass black hole released this Friday.
The discovery of this celestial body, called Gaia BH1, was made thanks to accurate observations of the motion of a star orbiting it at a distance comparable to that between the Earth and the Sun, indicated in a statement from the NOIRLab, a US research center. in the field of astronomy, which operates the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii, with which the observations were made.
Astronomers who use the . to use @GeminiObs North telescope, operated by @NSF“s @NOIRLabAstro have discovered the closest known black hole to Earth https://t.co/k0T57Vayqt
Credit: @GeminiObs/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva/Spaceengine/M. zamani pic.twitter.com/jZWIZeXMf3— NOIRLab (@NOIRLabAstro) November 4, 2022
A black hole is a dense and dark body from which nothing escapes, not even light, due to its intense gravitational field, so its presence is inferred by its interaction with other bodies or matter.
While there are probably millions of stellar black holes in the Milky Way, few have been discovered. In cases where they were detected, it was due to interaction with a star in their vicinity..
Gaia BH1, which has a mass ten times that of the Sun, is a so-called inactive black hole, it does not feed on material from its neighboring star, so it blends into its environment.
The findings of the discovery have been published in the scientific publication Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Source: DN
