Scientists Accidentally Found A Giant Blackhole Can Be Seen Without Binoculars or a Telescope.

The black hole is the first known “triple system” and the celestial phenomenon nearest to Earth ever seen in space.

In a groundbreaking discovery, astronomers have identified the closest black hole ever spotted to Earth, residing in the triple system known as ‘HR 6819’ that can be viewed from the southern hemisphere on a dark, clear night without binoculars or a telescope.

Unlike typical black holes that remain shrouded in mystery and darkness, this celestial giant, located a mere 1,000 light-years away, is observable with the naked eye, appearing as a discernible speck against the night sky from the southern hemisphere.

Unveiled by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in 2020, the HR 6819 black hole challenges our understanding of these enigmatic cosmic entities.

Typically, black holes are elusive, existing in regions of spacetime where gravity is so intense that not even light can escape. They devour everything in their proximity and warp time in ways still not entirely comprehended by scientists.

This particular black hole, three times the size of the Sun, was discovered within the constellation Telescopium as part of a triple system alongside two companion stars.

The ESO team stumbled upon this cosmic revelation while originally investigating double-star systems, capturing evidence of the invisible black hole during observations at the La Silla Observatory in Chile.

Initially, the team’s objective wasn’t to uncover a black hole; rather, they aimed to observe double-star systems.

Upon scrutinizing their observation data, they encountered an unexpected revelation—a third celestial body that had eluded previous detection. Subsequent examination confirmed this hidden entity as a black hole.

In their findings, it was observed that one of the two visible stars completes an orbit around an unseen companion every 40 days, while the second star maintains a considerable distance.

Petr Hadrava, Emeritus Scientist at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and co-author of the subsequent paper, remarked, “We were totally surprised when we realised that this is the first stellar system with a black hole that can be seen with the unaided eye.”

Unlike other violent, interacting stellar mass black holes, this one remains invisible, maintaining a true black hue.

The ESO team calculated its mass by studying the orbit of the inner star pair, determining it to be at least four times that of the Sun.

Study leader Dr. Thomas Rivinius, an ESO scientist, emphasized, “This system contains the nearest black hole to Earth that we know of. An invisible object with a mass at least four times that of the Sun can only be a black hole.”

The findings offer a promising formula for identifying similar triple systems across the universe, providing a deeper understanding of these cosmic marvels and potentially uncovering more celestial secrets.

Image credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin