Scientists have discovered the closest extinct black hole Gaia BH1 to Earth

Gaia Black Hole BH1 It is located about 1,600 light-years from our planet and has a mass about 10 times the mass of our Sun. Scientists believe that this cosmic body arose as a result of the explosion SupernovaAnd that there must be about 100 million structures similar to this mass in the Milky Way. However, only a few have been discovered so far.

Among them, almost all of them “actively feed”, steal material from the companion star, and also emit large amounts of X-rays. Interestingly, Gaia BH1 is different… it doesn’t eat its star, which is why astronomers think it is in a deep sleep.

The object was spotted by the Gaia spacecraft belonging to European Space Agency. Initially, the instrument picked up strange anomalies in the companion star. Further measurements confirmed that this star orbits the black hole.

Scientists were looking for the so-called dormant black holes. However, they still do not know how the newly discovered system originated. According to the results, such a binary system should be created by a massive star about 20 times larger than our Sun and a star with a mass similar to our Sun, which we are observing now, orbiting next to it.

A massive star could have evolved into a super red giant over the course of millions of years. However, this object’s outer layer would swallow up its neighbor before the supernova exploded. How the cosmic companion survived is a mysterywhich forces scientists to revise their theories about black hole binary systems.

Interestingly enough, this system does not easily adapt to standard binary evolution models. this is It raises many questions about how to create this duoAl-Badri said how many dormant black holes.