Everyone has heard of black holes, but so much is still unknown about them.  What we do know is that they are made when large stars die.  Oftentimes, black holes are found when they consume gas and stars because in doing so, they produce electromagnetic waves.  However, there are also black holes that are described as “quiet”. 

Quiet black holes are named such because they don’t consume anything.  Though they may not emit light, they still have a gravitational pull that is very telling if you can see the objects around it.  What led to this amazing find is the suspicious behavior of two stars; the star closest to the black hole orbits quickly whereas the one further away orbits slowly.  This behavior caused astronomers to take a closer look at what was going on between the two stars, a quiet black hole.

What is even more fascinating is that you can see these stars from the Southern Hemisphere!  If you know your constellations well, these two stars can be found in the one named Telescopium.

So not only is this a quiet black hole and you can see the two stars that orbit it without a telescope, it is also the closest black hole to Earth yet documented.  It is only 1,000 light years  away and about 7.5 miles wide.

This find further encourages astronomers to seek new ways to find black holes.  No longer can they depend on technology that searches only for the violent reactions of black holes consuming gas and stars around it.  Now we know that quiet black holes exist, possibly even closer to Earth than the one just found.  

Citation: https://astronomy.com/news/2020/05/astronomers-find-the-closest-known-black-hole-to-earth