They found the closest black hole to Earth

It is believed that all galaxies have at their center supermassive black hole. That is, a huge black hole, the mass of which is about millions to tens of billions of times greater than the mass of the Sun. stellar mass black holesmuch smaller, with a mass 5 to 100 times larger than our star. This makes them much more common. So much so that it is believed that only in our Milky Way should be about 100 million of them. Although this is only a calculation. The reality is that they were hardly discovered a little. Of course, now the closest one to Earth has only just been discovered: Gaia BH1.

This is an interesting find, because its close proximity to our planet will allow better exploration of black holes. But also because, unlike most black holes discovered so far, this one is already off. Namely, not active, absorbs material from a companion star.

This quality makes their discovery even more important, as these black holes are harder to detect. Fortunately, cooperation between Gaia spaceshipEuropean Space Agency (ESA) and Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph InstrumentThe International Gemini Observatory has made possible what, not so long ago, would have seemed like science fiction: discovering the invisible.

The problem of finding sleeping black holes

Stellar-mass black holes are usually part of binary system formed by themselves and the star from which they innings. That is, the material of the star is continuously attracted into a black hole. In this case, the black hole overheats and radiates powerful jets of material and x-rays. It is the latter that makes them easily detectable, since many instruments are designed to detect anomalies in space in the form of powerful X-ray bursts.

Now that the black hole is sleeping can be affected by gravity about his companion star, yes. But it no longer draws her strongly inward. And it’s not easy to see.

Andy Holmes (Unsplash)

Amazing find in the area

In 2013, ESA launched the Gaia space probe to make three types of measurements in space. One side, astrometric measurements, which include the positions, distances, and annual motions of the stars. For another, photometric measurements. And finally radial velocity measurement.

Changes in some of these dimensions may indicate the presence of objects gravitationally affecting others. Therefore, at first it was not a surprise to discover small changes in the motion of a star located in Constellation Ophiuchusa 1600 light years from the earth. What was surprising was that the object that allegedly caused this damage was invisible.

Logically, this raised the suspicion that it might be a black hole, so Gemini scientists set to work to confirm it. But this had to be done quickly, since it would be possible to carry out the corresponding measurements only at the point of closest approach of the orbits of both objects. For this it was necessary one week and, if they had not arrived on time, they would have had to wait a year. But they did it. They were able to discover companion star velocity changes and, in turn, his orbital period. In addition, taking into account the size of the star, they were also able to calculate the mass of this invisible object what really corresponded to a black hole about 10 solar masses.

It was an exciting find because this is the first time one of these black holes has been found in space. neighborhood of our planet. All relatively close black holes were detected by X-ray jet emission, indicating that they were still active. At best, several binary systems have been discovered, presumably containing a black hole. But in the end, everyone was denied.

This is the first confirmation, and as if that wasn’t enough, it’s three times closer of us than the one that has hitherto held the title of the closest black hole to Earth. So this is a double find.

Of course, now that these scientists know they have the tools they need, they can’t rule out finding more. To speak of immensity, you don’t even need to expand to the entire universe. Our own Milky Way is a haystack with many more needles to be found.