According to astronomers, they have discovered a tiny black hole with a mass so small, which locates it in a unique class. It is excitingly close to the Earth, roughly 1,500 light-years in Monoceros, a Milky Way constellation. This is the nearest black hole candidate to earth which scientists have discovered.
The black hole is named “Unicorn” by the team at Ohio State University. It is exceedingly rare nature and hat tip to the black hole’s home. As per astronomer Tharindu Jayasinghe, “When we looked at the data, this black hole – the Unicorn – just popped out.” He also said we didn’t notice it earlier despite astronomical blinders on.
From supermassive giants or tiny primordial ones powering the hearts of galaxies, black holes can exist in a range of masses as per the theory. But when the collapsing cores of dead stars form black holes, some mass gaps over the years have been found by the astronauts. When the star to roughly less than 2.3 times the mass of our Sun collapses down, it ends up being a neutron star, not a black hole. And until recently, any stellar black holes smaller than five solar masses have not been found, which leaves a mass gap.
Before any object is found in the gap, its existence is very doubtful. For example, when astronomers noticed a nearby red giant star tugged by something, the possibility that it was a tiny unseen companion was initially dismissed by them. But Tharindu looked at it differently. He analyzed data from various satellites and telescope systems in the Monoceros constellation honed in on a red giant in its last life stages.
The star was being tugged by gravity, and the star’s velocity all suggested a tiny black hole orbiting it. The size of this was calculated to be roughly three solar masses. The black hole distorts the star into a football-like shape with one axis longer than the other, as per astronomer Todd Thompson.
