Black holes may be closer to Earth than previously thought space

It is possible that Earth is closer to black holes than previously thought. At least that’s what a study published in the September issue of the magazine indicates. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Research conducted by a group of scientists from universities in Italy, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom and China indicates that these mysterious astronomical objects may be part of the Hyades, an open star cluster near the solar system. This region, which collects stars with similar ages and chemical properties, is about 45 parsecs, or 150 light-years, from the Sun.

Currently, the closest black hole candidate to our planet is Gaia BH1, which is 480 parsecs from the central star in our system.

The researchers came to this conclusion when studying the movement of stars in the Hyades. To study the evolution of celestial bodies, experts used astronomical models, and ended up getting a big surprise when they compared their results with observations of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Gaia satellite. Simply put, the study’s simulations did not match current precise data on the position and speed of stars in the cluster.

“Our simulations cannot simultaneously match the mass and volume of the Hyades unless there are some black holes in The center of the cluster today or until recently. Study, in statement Released on Friday (8).

The simulations provided results closer to ESA satellite measurements when the authors considered a scenario in which the Hyades currently contains two or three black holes. However, scientists estimate that it would be possible to obtain similar results in scenarios in which all the black holes were ejected less than 150 million years ago (about a quarter of the star cluster’s lifetime).

Mark Giles, a member of the Department of Quantum Physics and Astrophysics at the University of Barcelona, ​​concludes: “This observation helps us understand how the presence of black holes affects the evolution of star clusters and how these clusters contribute to the sources of gravitational waves.” Spain) and co-author of the study. “These results also give us an idea of ​​how these mysterious objects are distributed throughout the galaxy.”