An-Najah News - Astronomers at the Southern European Observatory announced their discovery of a new black hole that is closest to Earth among similar discoveries and is located in a star system visible with the naked eye.

The observatory said in a statement that its scientists discovered a black star that came from the collapse of a massive star internally, and its size is 4 times the size of the sun.

This hole is characterized as “silent” because it “does not interact violently with its surroundings” which means it does not absorb materials, so it is really black and in a hidden position in the star system.

“The invisible object is at least 4 times the size of the sun can only be a black hole,” said astrophysicist Thomas Rivinius, who is the principal author of the study published in the journal Astronome and Astrophysics.

“This stellar system contains the closest black hole we know to Earth,” he said.

The study stated that to date astronomers have detected about 25 black holes in our galaxy, which contains in the middle a huge black hole.