The hole now found is “only” 1,600 light-years away, three times closer than previously known closest black holes. The hole is ten times larger than our sun.
The discovery was made using the European Space Agency’s Gaia Space Telescope, according to Kareem El-Badry of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
A black hole can absorb smaller companions in the form of stars and it was by observing the movement of such a star that the discovery was made.
To confirm their findings, El-Badry and his collaborators conducted new studies at the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii. The discovery was published Friday in the Royal Astronomical Society’s monthly notices.
