Scientists have discovered the closest black hole to Earth, located just 1,000 light-years away.
May 6 (UPI) — Scientists have discovered the closest black hole to Earth, located just 1,000 light-years away.
Astronomers were able to pinpoint the black hole by tracking the trajectories of its two companion stars using a 2.2-meter telescope in Chile, managed by the European Southern Observatory and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy.
“We were totally surprised when we realized that this is the first stellar system with a black hole that can be seen with the unaided eye,” Petr Hadrava, an astronomer at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Prague, said in a news release.
The newly discovered black hole is part of the star system that forms the constellation Telescopium.
