Closest black hole to Earth has two partners in surprising celestial marriage

Recently the researchers have discovered the closest black hole to Earth known as HR 6819, which is at least 4.2 times the mass of the Sun, is gravitationally bound to two stars in a so-called triple system.

It is so close to the earth that two stars dancing with it can be seen without binoculars. European Southern Observatory astronomer Thomas Rivinius said that this black hole is about a thousand light years away from Earth.

The distance of one light year is equal to nine and a half thousand billion kilometers, but in the context of the universe, even galaxy, this black hole is our neighbor. The European Southern Observatory’s astronomer Thomas Rivinius led the team associated with this discovery. The diameter of this new blackhole can be 25 miles (about 40 kilometers).

The study related to this astronomical discovery was published on 06 April 2020 in the journal ‘Astronomy and Astrophysics’. Prior to this, the nearest black hole found in the Earth is almost three times that is 3,200 years away. The director of the Harvard Black Hole Initiative, AV Loeb, said that there is also a possibility of black holes that are closer to the earth than this black hole

About HR 6819

• It is also known as HD 167128 or QV Telescopii, is a triple star system in the southern constellation of Telescopium, which is 1,120 light-years from the SunSun.
• It can be seen from Earth’s southern hemisphere with the naked eye in the constellation Telescopium.
• HR 6819 is a hierarchical triple containing a classical be star in a wide orbit of the unknown period, a B3 III star, and a non-emitting (non-accreting) black hole, designated Ab.
• These are the extraordinarily dense objects possessing gravitational pulls so powerful that not even light can escape.
• Some are monstrous like the one at our galaxy’s center 26,000 light-years from Earth that is four million times the Sun’sSun’s mass.

What is a black hole?

• Black holes can be considered the last time of a star. When a huge star is nearing its end, it starts shrinking within itself.
• Eventually, it becomes a black hole that can swallow any of the biggest things inside.
• The attraction of a dying star increases so much that all the matter within it collapses and takes the shape of a small black ball.
• Now it has no volume but the density remains infinite.
• After this, it starts pulling all the objects of space towards it.
• The more things fit within it, the more its strength increases.

What is light year?

• Light year is an astronomical measure used to estimate the distance between stars and planets in space.
• This unit is mainly used to measure the distance between long distances such as two stars or other astronomical objects like galaxy.
• Light years are used to measure the distance between the stars, etc. in the confusion.

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