Unprecedented discovery: the discovery of a black hole 12 times larger than the sun “in the garden of the Earth”

“It is closer to the Sun than any other known black hole, at a distance of 1,550 light-years.It will be the closest black hole to Earth,” explains Sukanya Chakrabarti, of the University of Alabama.

The astrophysics professor is the lead author of the study published in The Astrophysical Journal, which revealed this impressive discovery, reports Europa Press. A massive black hole 12 times larger than the Sun is “in the garden of the Earth”. This means in the immediate environment of our planet.

invisible

Black holes are unique and relatively mysterious objects to scientists who study them. Although nearby stars and other celestial bodies feel the gravitational pull, light cannot escape the black hole. A feature that makes it completely invisible to monitoring. Scientists infer their existence from objects that seem to gravitate around…nothing.

To find this, Professor Chakrabarti and his team analyzed data from nearly 200,000 binary stars discovered over the summer by the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission.

On May 12, the first image of a black hole was revealed by researchers from the EHT (Event Horizon Telescope) and ESO (European Southern Observatory).

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Great World First: Image of Sagittarius A*, a black hole in the center of the Milky Way, finally revealed

“In some cases, such as supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies, they can lead to the formation and evolution of galaxies.”Explains an astrophysicist. “It is still not clear how these black holes affect the dynamics of galaxies in the Milky Way.”