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The European southern Observatory (European Southern Observatory, ESO) reports an important discovery: discovered the closest black hole from all known today, reports the Chronicle.info with reference on 3dnews.
The object is located at a distance of approximately 1000 light years from Earth. It is curious that this black hole is part of a triple star system that is visible to the naked eye.
We are talking about the system with the designation of HR 6819, which is located in the constellation of the Telescope. For studies of this structure have used the FEROS spectrograph on the 2.2-meter telescope MPG/ESO at the ESO Observatory La Silla in Chile.
It turned out that one of the two visible stars revolves around an unseen companion 40 days, and the second is at a large distance from the inner pair. Observations have shown that the mysterious invisible object is a black hole. Its mass is estimated at least four mass of the Sun.
“Hidden black hole in HR 6819 — one of the first discovered black holes of stellar mass, which do not interact actively with their surroundings and therefore are truly black, “notes the ESO.
Experts say that the significance of the discovery can hardly be overestimated. The discovery of this “sleeping” invisible black hole tells us where there might be other hidden black holes in the milky way.
“The Galaxy must be hundreds of millions of black holes, and we know only a few. Now that we know where to look, there should be more, “conclude the researchers.
