Astronomers Discover Black Hole Hiding In Plain Sight In Earth's "Backyard"

Shariqua Ahmed
2020-05-12T14:36:14-07:00

Given that each light-year — defined as the distance light travels in one Earth year — is about 6 trillion miles (9 trillion km), a black hole that lies 1,000 light-years away may not seem very close. However, to astronomers who are accustomed to cosmic distance scales, the recently-discovered HR 6819's black hole, which lies in the constellation Telescopium, is an extremely close neighbor.