Universe researchers have discovered a new black hole near the earth - by chance: it behaves oddly - its companions can be seen from Earth.
- Astronomers discover a black hole - by accident.
- It is closer to Earth than any other black hole.
- But that's not the only peculiarity of the discovery.
Garching / Chile - When astronomers speak of "spatial proximity", they mean a very special type of proximity - which is usually inconceivable for non-researchers.
However, the rediscovery of a research team around the European Southern Observatory (ESO) from Garching near Munich should also cause fascination for non-astronomers. It is only 1,000 light years away - while our entire galaxy spans an area of 100,000 light years . And what's more, the discovery is something that has long fascinated mankind: a black hole .
1/4 A team of astronomers from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and other institutes has discovered a black hole lying just 1000 light-years from Earth.https: //t.co/7zHzePwvS9
Illustration credit: @ESO / L. Calçada pic.twitter.com/YDmYD2sq4T
Black hole near Earth: That surprised even the researchers
The team actually wanted to investigate a double-star system called HR 6819 - but then the researchers were amazed when they recognized a third object in this system: a black hole .
And then they made another discovery that amazed them: While other well-known black holes mostly interact with their surroundings using strong X-rays , this black hole behaves completely calmly. And that should be the starting point for further research and - probably - new discoveries in the universe .
Black hole discovered near Earth: Researchers are now looking for similar constellations
The invisible object has four times the mass of our sun - this is also one of the factors the researchers are now supposed to track down further black holes.
The two accompanying stars can even be seen with the naked eye from the southern hemisphere , the researchers report. To do this, the night must be clear. Thomas Rivinius , who is part of the team based in Chile , says: "Now that we know what we are looking for, we should be in a better position." The researchers suspect that there could still be hundreds of millions of such black holes . Because in the Milky Way, many more stars must have collapsed into such black holes over time than they ceased to exist.
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