Space – the final frontier.It feels like we wake up every day to news of some asteroid or the other that’s just about ready to destroy earth, but then decides to go its own way. Now however, there’s something else that’s piqued people’s attention.
According to The Atlantic, astronomers have discovered a black hole just 1,000 light-years away from Earth. In terms of space, that’s super close.
To get a better understanding of just how relatively close this black hole is, we need to talk about the ones that are most famous. The black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy is more than 25,000 light-years away, and the black hole that astronomers captured last year is 55 million light-years away.
This black hole resides in a constellation named Telescopium, and astronomers had a hard time finding it as black holes are invisible.
There’s no need to panic however – despite its proximity to Earth, it’s not close enough to gobble us up. In fact, there are probably 100s of millions of black holes in our galaxy.
Pretty reassuring, right? Right?
People had some interesting things to say about it.
Being 1011 light years away, may be it doesn’t exists anymore. Or may be its bigger and closer and coming our way.
— Amit Sharma (@amit04nov) May 6, 2020
well that literally sucks
— RoninDave (@ronindave) May 7, 2020
Oh no! I was just feeling safe again! Gonna have a lot of research to do today to regain my equilibrium. Thanks a lot science! 😘
— Laura Haddy (@haddy_laura) May 6, 2020
Astronomers have found the closest known black hole to Earth! But
— Phil Plait (@BadAstronomer) May 6, 2020
<DON’T PANIC>
it’s still ten thousand *trillion* kilometers away. On a galactic scale, though, that’s right next door.https://t.co/PeCViKI3wA
It’s a discomfiting thought that there are a bunch of planet-eating entities just floating around space. Best not to dwell on it, I suppose.
