Ohio University Astronomers, Ohio University Astronomers, have found a black hole close to Earth, called “Unicorn”, which is also one of the smallest. This is reported in a press release on Phys.org.
The mass of the “unicorn” is about three times more than the mass of the Sun, which is a bit by challenges of the black hole, but makes this object with a rarity in the Milky Way. Apparently, it is a companion of the Red Giant – the stars, followed by observations using different telescopes: from Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (Kelt) to the TESss Space Observatory.
Researchers noticed changes in the intensity of light and the appearance of the star, as if something invisible was rotated around her. The tidal distortion of the shape of the luminaire indicated the existence of a compact object, for example, a black hole. However, many astronomers embarrassed a small mass of the object, which made this option unlikely.
Scientists again allowed a black hole near the Red Star after the discovery of tiny black holes made by the same research team from Ohio University. Then the researchers analyzed data on the light spectra of 100 thousand stars in the Milky Way to find stars around which invisible objects rotated. According to calculations, one of the candidate stars is included in one system with a black hole whose mass exceeds the mass of 3.3 times.
According to scientists, the simplest and most likely explanation, why the red giant is subjected to tidal distortion, is the same small black hole. In this case, the “unicorn” beats a record closest to the solar system of black holes from known, located at a distance of 1500 light years from the ground.