Astronomers discover black hole in Earth's galactic backyard

[Amy-Strange]

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Astronomers discover black hole in Earth’s galactic backyard

Astronomers have discovered the closest black hole to Earth ever found, located just 1,000 light-years away.

It is part of an unusual triple system called HR 6819, consisting of two stars and a black hole all orbiting the same point, according to research published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Black holes absorb everything that comes close to them, even light, so it is essentially impossible to observe one directly. In this case, the astronomers with the European Southern Observatory (ESO) were able to locate the black hole using the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile to look at the movements of one of the other stars in the system.

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https://www.digitaltrends.com/news/black-hole-closest-to-earth-triple-system/?itm_medium=editors

RELATED ARTICLE:

A naked-eye triple system with a nonaccreting black hole in the inner binary
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso2007/eso2007a.pdf
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[NoRoadUntravelled]

1. Fascinating Post. Thanks! 1,000 Light Years Away

I imagine this would be far less than the size of a pin prick in distance from Earth, relatively speaking, when considering the vastness of the cosmos.
A mere blink of the eye away. Amazing.

[Amy-Strange]

2. Plus, what we're seeing, actually happened a 1,000 light-years in the past, and...

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we won't know what's happening right now for another 1,000.

Thank you for sharing.
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[NoRoadUntravelled]

3. It's fascinating to contemplate that when we're looking at the stars

we are actually peering into the far distant past.

[Amy-Strange]

4. So true, and...

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it boggles my mind at how BIG everything is!

Millions (maybe billions or more) of light-years in ALL directions, and for some reason it's still getting bigger, and at an even faster rate.

Scientist can't figure out why, because after the big-bang, the expansion of the universe should be slowing down, not speeding up.

Like you said, it's definitely fascinating.
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[kurtcagle]

5. That's VERY close for a black hole.

The primary danger from a black hole is not really being sucked in by one. Yes, eventually EVERYTHING will end up either sucked into black holes or scattered out into space so far that they're essentially in their own separate universes due to the expansion of the universe. The bigger problem is that when a black hole starts absorbing a large star, the jets created by the warped magnetic fields can shoot gamma radiation, high energy photons, towards targets hundreds or even thousands of light-years away, essentially sterilizing all life in that direction. It's not a very big likelihood that it will happen to be facing the solar system when it does (most stars spin more or less perpendicular to the galactic plane, net surprisingly), but it's not out of the realm of possibility either.

[Amy-Strange]

6. Thanks for the added info. n/t

[Amy-Strange]

7. That IS scary!

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It might be happening right now, or just after we discovered it, but we won't know it until we see it.

Unless gamma radiation and all that other crap can travel faster than light, but from what I understand, nothing can travel faster than that.

Thanks for giving me one more thing to worry about.

Ha, ha, just kidding.
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[kurtcagle]

8. Yup.

Gamma radiation is light from the extreme edge of the electromagnetic spectrum with frequencies in the exaHertz range. (10^18 and above). So you're right - you likely wouldn't see such a blast coming, though it's possible that you might pick up the gravity waves of two black holes circling one another for months before that event happened, and might actually see the leadup visually to such a blast if it was within a thousand lightyears or so. Also keep in mind that if it WAS in the galactic plane, you'd likely see the effect of the tightening magnetic stream on intervening gas clouds.