Astronomers announce discovery of black hole, the closest to Earth ever discovered

Astronomers this week announced the discovery of the closest black hole to Earth, one significantly nearer than the previous record-holder. 

Space researchers at the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said in a press release that the "dormant" black hole, dubbed Gaia BH1, "weighs about 10 times the mass of the Sun and is located about 1600 light-years away in the constellation Ophiuchus."

Its location marks it as "three times closer to Earth than the previous record holder, an X-ray binary in the constellation of Monoceros."

The discovery was made after observing the movements of a Sun-like star orbiting the black hole. The researchers said the distance between the star and the black hole is effectively the same as that between Earth and the Sun. 

"Take the Solar System, put a black hole where the Sun is, and the Sun where the Earth is, and you get this system," lead study author Kareem El-Badry said in the release. 

"I've been searching for dormant black holes for the last four years using a wide range of datasets and methods," El-Badry added. "My previous attempts — as well as those of others — turned up a menagerie of binary systems that masquerade as black holes, but this is the first time the search has borne fruit."