A dark, invisible monster world that is lurking closer to us than we thought has been exposed by more sophisticated astronomical observation equipment. An illustration is Gaia BH1.

A group of researchers from the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Harvard University (USA), under the direction of Dr. Kareem El-Badry, have reportedly discovered one of the closest black holes ever found, 1,560 light-years away.

It is a part of a star system that is very different from our own. Eight planets and numerous more celestial bodies, including a lush, populated Earth, are positioned around the suns.

Only the aforementioned black hole, forming a spectral, deadly binary star system, is present, however, in the vicinity of a star similar to our own in the constellation Ophiuchus.

To locate the pair, researchers examined X-ray data and information from the European Space Agency’s Gaia galaxy mapping satellite. In order to obtain a precise measurement of the orbital period, the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrometer at the Gemini North observatory (located in Hawaii) was also activated.

While the binary’s “living” star is completely similar to the Sun in size and mass, its companion – the black hole Gaia BH1 – is 10 times larger.

The two objects orbit each other at a distance, so the “Sun replica” still exists even though near it is a monster capable of swallowing 10 stars like it.

“This is the first unambiguous detection of a Sun-like star in a wide orbit around a stellar-mass black hole in our galaxy,” said Dr. El-Badry.

The study has just been published online in the scientific journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

In mid-October, another research team led by the University of Alabama – USA also announced the discovery of a star system – the black hole Gaia DR3 – 1,550 light-distance away from us, in which a black hole 11.9 times larger. times the Sun is causing its companion star to “wobble”.

Both black holes in the two studies are stellar-mass black holes, which are much larger than the Sun but still in the “tiny” form in the black hole world.

The greatest of all black holes are the monster black holes (supermassive black holes) at the centers of galaxies. For example, the black hole Sagittarius A* (Sagittarius A*) at the center of the galaxy containing the Earth Milky Way has a mass equivalent to 4 million Suns.v