A small black hole has been discovered by some astronomers which is quite close to the earth. Since black holes emit no light, it is very difficult to spot one. To spot a black hole, astronomers monitor its nearby stars and gravitational force around it. This black hole is just 1,500 light-years away from the Earth. It was spotted because a red giant star’s shape was distorted by the gravitational pull of the black hole. Researchers from Ohio State University spotted this bizarre movement.
“Just as the moon’s gravity distorts the Earth’s oceans, causing the seas to bulge toward and away from the moon, producing high tides, so does the black hole distort the star into a football-like shape with one axis longer than the other,” said Todd Thompson, Ohio State’s astronomy department and co-author of the study.
“The simplest explanation is that it’s a black hole — and in this case, the simplest explanation is the most likely one,” he added.
