Black hole approaching solar system

Is there a dark black hole near Earth?

Now, astronomers have found a "dark" black hole only 1000 light-years away from Earth—just down the road in galactic terms. It is the closest black hole to our planet ever found, in a star system that is visible to the naked eye. "They have good evidence," says Todd Thompson, an astronomer at Ohio State University, Columbus.

How far away is a black hole from Earth?

A black hole about 10 times more massive than our sun lurks just 1,560 light-years from Earth, a new study reports. That's about twice as close as the previous proximity champ. The newfound object, a stellar-mass black hole called Gaia BH1, resides in a binary system whose other member is a sunlike star.

How often do black holes Whizz through our Solar System?

(Benjamin Lehmann, using SpaceEngine @ Cosmographic Software LLC) Tiny, ancient black holes could whizz through our Solar System as often as once a decade, according to a new study. We could spot them by watching for a wobble in the orbit of Mars – and that could help uncover dark matter.

Can we see a black hole in the Solar System?

They found that a primordial black hole, packing the mass of an asteroid into a space the size of a single atom, should stream through the inner Solar System about once every 10 years or so. Although we wouldn't be able to directly see it, such a visitor would still make its presence known.

Can a black hole help us understand binary systems?

Located a mere 1600 light-years away, its close proximity to Earth offers an intriguing target of study to advance our understanding of the evolution of binary systems. “Take the Solar System, put a black hole where the Sun is, and the Sun where the Earth is, and you get this system.”

Could a primordial black hole flyby change the orbit of planets?

Primordial black hole flybys might tweak the orbits of planets and GPS satellites A primordial black hole in the solar system (illustrated) could make its presence known by altering the orbits of planets. Black holes about the size of a hydrogen atom could be careening through the solar system unnoticed. But their days of stealth may be numbered.