It is the closest black hole to Earth, located "astronomically the door next" according to Europe 1 scientific consultant Alain Cirou. Researchers recently discovered the existence of a stellar black hole 1,000 light years from Earth by researching a couple of stars. In " L'Équipée sauvage " this Wednesday, the man who is also the editor of the specialist magazine Ciel et Espace explains why this discovery is "a feat".
An "invisible" stellar object
The exploit comes quite simply from the fact that the stellar black hole is "invisible", indicates Alain Cirou at the microphone of Europe 1. It is therefore almost by chance that the researchers of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), located in the Chilean desert of Atacama, discovered this stellar object. "They were doing a fairly simple study, and were looking at a couple of stars in the constellation of the telescope." And it was by making a series of measurements that they realized that "this couple revolved around a totally invisible center, an object that emitted no light and whose mass must be four times that of the Sun: a stellar black hole. "
Precision is important because the term "black hole" is generic, explains the specialist. "It's like the word 'tree'. But in nature, there are apple trees and baobabs. We have discovered an apple tree," explains the scientist.
>> Find all of Matthieu Noël's programs in replay and podcast here
The end of life for "very big stars"
As for how he could have found himself at such a distance from Earth, we must go back to the origins of the formation of a black hole. "The very large stars, more than 40 times the mass of the Sun, end their life in a gigantic fireworks display, [an explosion of matter, note ] and become supernovas. Stars whose gravity is so dense that their nucleus ends up "collapsing on itself" and that "even the light cannot escape any more".