Black Hole or Vampire Star?
In 2020, astronomers identified a nearby star system that appeared to contain something phenomenal: the closest black hole to Earth! Now, new research from some of those same astronomers suggests that they may have been deceived by a cosmic illusion.
Transcript
00:00 In 2020, astronomers turned their telescopes to a nearby star system and saw something
00:04 incredible.
00:05 Two stars locked in orbit around what appeared to be a black hole.
00:10 Located just a thousand light years from Earth, it would be the nearest black hole to our
00:13 solar system ever discovered, about three times nearer than the next closest candidate.
00:19 Because black holes are too dark to observe directly, the team's evidence was based
00:23 on the behavior of the two stars they could see.
00:26 One of the stars seemed to be circling an unseen object in a tight orbit of 40 days
00:30 or so, while the second star appeared to orbit both the black hole and the first star from
00:35 a much further distance.
00:36 However, new research shows that it may have all been a cosmic optical illusion the whole
00:41 time.
00:42 In a new paper, astronomers looked at that star system again, this time using the European
00:47 Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope.
00:50 Yes, that is what it's really called.
00:52 The scientists found that the system's two stars weren't far apart from each other
00:56 after all, but actually orbited one another at about one third of the distance between
01:00 Earth and the Sun.
01:01 It only appeared that they were spread apart because one star was significantly smaller
01:06 than the other, and rotated much more slowly.
01:09 According to the researchers, this is only possible if the larger star had literally
01:12 stolen the atmosphere away from the smaller one in a rarely seen phenomenon called stellar
01:18 vampirism.
01:20 The vampire star ballooned in mass and began to spin faster, while the so-called donor
01:24 star shrunk and slowed.
01:26 "With these two stars orbiting so closely together, there is absolutely no room for
01:31 a black hole in their solar system," the researchers said.
01:35 That moves Earth's closest black hole back by a few thousand light years.
01:39 But it also gives scientists a rare and eye-opening glimpse at the lives of vampire stars and
01:45 their unfortunate companions.
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