Astronomers have discovered the closest known black hole to Earth, called Gaia bh1, which is located about 1560 light years away in the constellation Taurus. It is part of a binary system with a sun-like star that orbits the black hole every 185 days. The discovery was made using data from the Gaia space mission, which maps the positions, distances, motions, and properties of over 2 billion stars in the Milky Way with unprecedented accuracy. This remarkable discovery raises interesting questions about how this system formed and survived, how common systems like this are in our galaxy and beyond, and how we can learn more about black holes and their properties through studying systems such as Gaia bh1. The video also explains the different types of black holes and methods for detecting them. Finally, viewers are taught how to spot Gaia bh1 using a simple telescope.
1. Astronomers have found the closest known black hole to Earth.
2. The black hole is located in the constellation Taurus, about 1560 light years away from us.
3. The black hole has a mass of about 9.6 times that of the Sun.
4. The black hole is part of a binary system with a star similar to our Sun.
5. The discovery was made using data from Gaia, a space mission launched by the European Space Agency in 2013.
6. The easiest way to detect a black hole is by looking for its effects on its environment, such as its gravitational influence on other objects or the x-rays emitted by its accretion disk.
7. Gaia bh1 is the first unambiguous detection of a sun-like star in a wide orbit around a Stellar Mass black hole in our galaxy.
8. Gaia bh1 is the first detection of a black hole that does not depend on the mass of the star or the inclination of the orbit, or involve any mass transfer or accretion disk.
9. Studying systems like Gaia bh1 can provide new insights into the nature and origin of black holes.