The closest pair to Earth was discovered by huge black holes

Astronomers say they have discovered the closest pair of huge black holes to Earth ever observed, some 89 million light-years away.

The two objects are also the shortest distance (1,600 light-years) from any other pair of large black holes in the past. Eventually, at some point in the future, the two black holes are expected to merge into one giant black hole.

The researchers, led by Karina Vogel of the University of Strasbourg, made the discovery with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile and published it in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

The largest black hole, located to the right of the center of the galaxy NGC 7727 in the constellation of Aquarius, has a mass about 154 million times larger than our Sun, while the smallest, in the same galaxy, has 6.3 million solar masses.

The search for large black holes and their pairs is expected to be a major step forward when the ESO Ultra-Large Telescope (ELT) under construction in the Chilean Atacama Desert becomes operational later this decade.

Link to the scientific publication: https://www.aanda.org/component/article?access=doi&doi=10.1051/0004-6361/202140827

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