This artist’s impression shows the orbits of the objects in the HR 6819 triple system. This system is made up of an inner binary with one star (orbit in blue) and a newly discovered black hole (orbit in red), as well as a third star in a wider orbit (also in blue). The team originally believed there were only two objects, the two stars, in the system. However, as they analysed their observations, they were stunned when they revealed a third, previously undiscovered body in HR 6819: a black hole, the closest ever found to Earth. The black hole is invisible, but it makes its presence known by its gravitational pull, which forces the luminous inner star into an orbit. The objects in this inner pair have roughly the same mass and circular orbits. The observations, with the FEROS spectrograph on the 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla, showed that the inner visible star orbits the black hole every 40 days, while the second star is at a large distance from this inner pair.
Astronomers have discovered a tiny black hole relatively near to Earth. It has been dubbed ‘The Unicorn’ and has a mass around three times that of the Sun. The smallest black holes to have previously been discovered are at least six times the mass of the Sun, so the newly found one could fall into a new category.
For a black hole to form, it had been assumed that a star would need to be at least six times that of the Sun when it collapses in on itself, creating a tear in the fabric of spacetime.
The Unicorn opens up a world of possibilities on what other black holes may be out there.
But do not be fooled by its small size – it still has a gravitational pull which can consume anything around it.
The black hole was discovered by researchers at the Ohio State University, which said it was “hiding in plain sight”.
Post Your Comments