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The Closest Black Hole to Earth is just 1,500 light-years Away

There are plenty of black holes in outer space. Astronomers have found what they believe is currently the closest black hole to Earth.

Gaia BH1 is about 1,560 light-years from Earth and has a mass 10 times bigger than that of the sun. It is the first black hole discovered to be close to Earth, the second closest is around twice the distance at 3,200 light-years away.

Like many black holes, Gaia BH1 eats gas from massive stars that are clustered together. As the black hole eats the gas, it forms a disk around the black hole that can only be seen through x-rays. A star that is orbiting a black hole at a safe distance will not get eaten, but since the gravitational pull of a black hole is massive it can get pushed and pulled around space.

As far as has been discovered, Gaia BH1 is the closest black hole found in Earth’s neighborhood. However, it might not be the closest as there might be others out in space that have not yet been seen by our telescopes. We hope to learn more in the future as more data is set to be released in 2025.

[Source: science news.org/article/closest-known-black-hole-to-earth]

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