Astronomers discover black hole closer to Earth than any before, suggest it may not be alone

We’ve got a new galactic neighbour — a small black hole left over from the death of a fleeting young star.

more…

Tau.Neutrino said:

Astronomers discover black hole closer to Earth than any before, suggest it may not be alone

We’ve got a new galactic neighbour — a small black hole left over from the death of a fleeting young star.

more…

Key points:

• The black hole is tiny, only 40km in diameter
• It is not close enough to swallow anything, but it is warping the orbit of its nearest star

> a telescope in Chile

Is there more information on this? Which telescope and why were they looking in this direction?

OK. European Southern Observatory (ESO). Here’s the original ESO press release. https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2007/

We were totally surprised when we realised that this is the first stellar system with a black hole that can be seen with the unaided eye. The team found evidence for the invisible object by tracking its two companion stars using the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. The team originally observed the system, called HR 6819, as part of a study of double-star systems.

Another system, called LB-1, may also be such a triple, though we’d need more observations to say for sure

Nice work! First naked eye black hole. Look at enough bright double star systems and something weird appears.

mollwollfumble said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Astronomers discover black hole closer to Earth than any before, suggest it may not be alone

We’ve got a new galactic neighbour — a small black hole left over from the death of a fleeting young star.

more…

Key points:

• The black hole is tiny, only 40km in diameter
• It is not close enough to swallow anything, but it is warping the orbit of its nearest star

> a telescope in Chile

Is there more information on this? Which telescope and why were they looking in this direction?

OK. European Southern Observatory (ESO). Here’s the original ESO press release. https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2007/

We were totally surprised when we realised that this is the first stellar system with a black hole that can be seen with the unaided eye. The team found evidence for the invisible object by tracking its two companion stars using the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. The team originally observed the system, called HR 6819, as part of a study of double-star systems.

Another system, called LB-1, may also be such a triple, though we’d need more observations to say for sure

Nice work! First naked eye black hole. Look at enough bright double star systems and something weird appears.

https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2020/05/aa38020-20/aa38020-20.html

The paper.