{"id":1165,"date":"2022-11-04T14:19:57","date_gmt":"2022-11-04T18:19:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techfragments.com\/?p=1165"},"modified":"2022-11-05T14:20:30","modified_gmt":"2022-11-05T18:20:30","slug":"gaia-bh1-nearest-black-hole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techfragments.com\/gaia-bh1-nearest-black-hole\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaia BH1 – Nearest Black Hole To Earth Yet Found"},"content":{"rendered":"
Using the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii, one of the twin telescopes of the International Gemini Observatory, run by the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab, astronomers have identified the black hole<\/a> closest to Earth found yet. They have named it Gaia BH1.<\/p>\n This dormant black hole is about 10 times as heavy as the sun and is about 1,600 light-years away in the constellation Ophiuchus. It is three times closer to Earth than the previous record holder, an X-ray binary<\/a> in the constellation Monoceros.<\/p>\n Black holes are the universe’s most extreme objects. Supermassive versions of these inconceivably dense objects are most likely found at the cores of all large galaxies. Stellar-mass black holes, which weigh five to one hundred times the mass of the sun, are much more common, with an estimated 100 million in the Milky Way alone.<\/p>\n Only a few have been confirmed so far, and nearly all of them are “active” \u2014 that is, they shine brightly in X-rays as they consume material from a nearby stellar companion, as opposed to dormant black holes, which do not.<\/p>\nSun-like Star Orbiting Gaia BH1 Black Hole<\/h2>\n