Hubble has discovered a very rare black hole 6,000 light years from Earth that is only 800 times more massive than the Sun

The Hubble Space Telescope has helped scientists discover a very rare black hole. It's close to Earth and is wreaking havoc on the stars that surround it.

Here's What We Know

The black hole is located in the M4 star cluster in the constellation Scorpio, 6,000 light years away from our planet. Its mass is only 800 times that of the Sun. This is the main feature of the discovered object.

If the discovery is confirmed, scientists will have one more proof that the universe is friendly to medium-sized black holes. So far, only a handful have been discovered. Most black holes have a mass of 10-100 suns or millions / billions of suns.

Scientists believe that medium-sized black holes are located in the centres of small galaxies and absorb stars. Their existence is difficult to confirm, although astronomers proved in 2014 that there is such an object 12 million years from Earth.

Scientists used data from the Gaia space observatory to detect the black hole. They studied the chaotic motion of stars trapped by the black hole's gravitational field at the centre of the M4 cluster.

Source: space