2023-09-12 13:26:00
The closest black hole to Earth is Gaia BH1, about 1600 light years away. However, now new research suggests there are others about 10 times closer to us, housed in a location visible during the night sky.
Black holes generally form from the collapse of massive stars, most of which spent their entire lives in clusters of stars that didn’t have as much time to disperse. Therefore, nearby clusters are the most logical place to look for these objects.
The Hyades are located in the Constellation of Taurus, more precisely at its head, and are the closest cluster of stars to Earth, around 153 light-years away. Led by Stefano Torniamenti from the University of Padua, a group of researchers investigated whether black holes could exist in the cluster.
The study recently published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society analyzed the location and movement of stars to discover whether there was gravitational influence from an object that was not being seen. The simulations indicated yes.
Our simulations can only simultaneously match the mass and size of the Hyads if some black holes are present at the center of the cluster today (or until recently).
Stefano Torniamenti, in press release
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Black holes in simulations
The simulations that best reproduced the characteristics of the Hyades showed that there are currently 2 to 3 black holes in the cluster. Models where all black holes were ejected less than 150 million years ago also achieved good compatibility. Even though they are no longer part of the cluster, they remain relatively close to it.
Therefore, any of these objects originating in the Hyades star cluster remains closer to the Sun than the previous candidate.
Until then, the search for cosmic monsters of stellar mass took place in globular clusters in the halo of the Milky Way, which are easier to investigate than those with an irregular shape. The latter, however, are the easiest to find near us.
Now, with the Gaia Space Telescope, with its precision in locating stars, it has been possible to observe the Hyades and the existence of black holes in the cluster. The discovery will enable future studies to analyze how these objects affect the evolution of clusters and how they contribute to the sources of gravitational waves.
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