A team of astronomers discovered a black hole lying just 1,000 light-years from Earth — and its presence may hint at the existence of many more.
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Astronomers have just found the closest black hole to us yet, a discovery which suggests there could be even more black holes lurking out there in the universe.

The astronomers were originally looking for a double star system called HR 6819 — a pair of stars close enough that it can be seen from the Southern Hemisphere without any optical aids on a dark and clear night. But while observing the stars, the astronomers realized that what they were really seeing was a three body system: The inner star was orbiting around something (hint, hint: a black hole) once every 40 days, while the outer star orbited the pair from much farther away.

So how did researchers know that the star was orbiting a black hole? And what does this discovery mean for the future of space observation and our understanding of large stars and three body systems? Find out in this Elements.

#blackhole #stars #space #seeker #science #elements

Read More:
10 Questions You Might Have About Black Holes
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/106...
"While black holes are mysterious and exotic, they are also a key consequence of how gravity works: When a lot of mass gets compressed into a small enough space, the resulting object rips the very fabric of space and time, becoming what is called a singularity."

Closest black hole to Earth found 'hiding in plain sight'
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/sc...
"The astronomers studying HR 6819 weren’t looking for black holes at all. Instead, they wanted to learn more about a pair of odd stars orbiting each other."

How Supermassive Black Holes Were Discovered
http://nautil.us/issue/69/patterns/ho...
"Given that the centers of galaxies might harbor supermassive black holes, it was natural to check the center of our Milky Way galaxy for such a monster. In 1974, a very compact radio source, smaller than 1 second of arc (1/3600 of a degree) was discovered there."

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