There Was a 'Monster Celestial Body' Black Hole in Earth's Backyard [Reading Science]

Gemini Observatory Discovers Stellar-Mass Black Hole at 1,560 Light-Years Distance
Closest Ever Found, Three Times Closer Than Previous
Confirmed by Companion Star Orbit Observation, Named Gaia BH1
Previous Claim of Black Hole at 1,000 Light-Years Distance 'Not True'

Photo by Hawaii International Gemini Observatory, USA.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] A terrifying celestial body known as a 'black hole,' which absorbs everything, has been discovered about 1,600 light-years away from Earth. It turns out that an enormous monster had been lurking in Earth's "backyard," completely unnoticed until now.

The Gemini Observatory in Hawaii published a paper on the 4th in the British international astronomy journal 'Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,' reporting the discovery of the black hole 'Gaia BH1' located 1,560 light-years away from Earth (1 light-year ? 9.46 trillion km). This dormant black hole is a 'stellar-mass black hole' about 10 times larger than the Sun. It is situated in the constellation Ophiuchus, which is visible in the southern sky during summer. It is three times closer than the previously confirmed closest black hole in the Monoceros constellation, which is about 5,200 light-years away.

Astronomers confirmed the existence of the black hole by closely observing the movement of the star orbiting Gaia BH1 at a distance similar to that between the Earth and the Sun. Black holes are formed when massive stars collapse under their own gravity, passing through stages such as white dwarfs and neutron stars. Due to their strong gravity, not even light can escape, making them appear black. Therefore, they cannot be detected by ordinary telescopes. Astronomers analyzed the orbit of the star orbiting the black hole and confirmed that it is distorted by strong gravity. By analyzing the positions, velocities, and trajectories of over 2 billion stars collected by the Gaia space observatory satellite launched by the European Space Agency (ESA), they discovered that the star orbiting Gaia BH1 exhibits slight irregularities caused by gravitational waves.

Subsequently, observations continued using multiple ground-based telescopes, revealing that the black hole is a stellar-mass black hole with about 10 times the mass of the Sun, and the companion star orbits Gaia BH1 approximately once every 186 days. In 2020, there was a claim of discovering a black hole in a binary system 1,000 light-years away from Earth, but it was proven false in March of this year.

Karim El-Badry, a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany, who led the study, said, "There have been many claims about finding the closest black hole to Earth, but most were later proven false. This study clearly detected, for the first time in history, a Sun-like star orbiting a stellar-mass black hole in our galaxy."

Astronomers estimate that there are about 100 million stellar-mass black holes in our galaxy, ranging from at least 5 times to up to 100 times the mass of the Sun. However, compared to supermassive black holes, which are hundreds of thousands of times larger than the Sun, stellar-mass black holes are relatively small and difficult to capture with telescopes. Therefore, recent research has focused on detecting gravitational waves emitted by black holes or capturing materials and X-rays produced during the process of absorbing stars.