Jakarta, CNN Indonesia –
Astronomers claim to have found the smallest black hole the closest Earth who are nicknamed Unicorn.
This black hole is very different from normal because it is the smallest and closest black hole to the Earth that has been found so far.
The unicorn is located right next to a red giant star called V723 Mon in the constellation Monoceros. The unicorn is only 1,500 light years from Earth and the object appears to have a mass only three times that of the Sun.
“We named this black hole ‘Unicorn’ partly because V723 Mon is in the constellation Monoceros, which translates to unicorn and partly because it is a very unique system. Unique in terms of black hole mass and relative proximity to Earth,” said Ohio University astronomer Tharindu Jayasinghe, lead author of the study published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
The smallest black hole previously discovered is 3.3 times the mass of the Sun. Whereas the previous closest black hole was twice as far as the Unicorn.
The previous closest black hole to the HR 6819 star system is a bit controversial. Because, the distance is said to be only 1,120 light years away before finally there are further studies that refute it.
For astronomers, the Unicorn is something strange. This is because they are smaller than most of the smallest black holes, a group known as stellar mass black holes, which range between five and about 30 solar masses. Until recently, astronomers had no idea that such a small black hole existed.
Black holes are inherently difficult to see. Astronomers observe the Unicorn through its effect on its companion star. The intensity of the light appears to change at different points in its orbit, indicating that it is being pulled into a strange shape by gravity from something nearby.
Launch New Atlas, because no stars were visible, they concluded it was most likely a black hole.
Launch ReutersBlack holes like Unicorns are formed when massive stars die and their cores collapse.
There are three categories of black holes. The smallest, such as the ‘Unicorn’, are called stellar mass black holes formed by the gravitational collapse of a single star. Then a giant ‘supermassive’ black hole like the one at the center of our galaxy, 26,000 light years from Earth, four million times the mass of the Sun. Several medium mass black holes have also been discovered with masses in between.
The researchers say the Unicorn belongs to the “mass gap” between the largest known neutron stars, objects similarly formed by the collapse of a massive star, about 2.2 times the mass of the sun and a tiny black hole, about five times the mass of the sun.
(jps / eks)
– .
