Zoom toward the stellar black hole "Gaia BH1"

This video zooms into the Milky Way to the position of the stellar black hole "Gaia BH1", currently the black hole closest to Earth. After arriving at the location, we see the orbit of a Sun-like star around Gaia BH1.
The animation is part of an MPIA press release that is based on the article:
Kareem El-Badry et al., "A Sun-like star orbiting a black hole", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2022), doi: 10.1093/mnras/stac3140
Article at MNRAS: academic.oup.com/mnras/advanc...
Preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2209.06833
MPIA press release: www.mpia.de/news/science/2022...
Credit: T. Müller (MPIA), PanSTARRS DR1 (K. C. Chambers et al. 2016), ESA/Gaia/DPAC (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO)

[@kamdanexpress1926]

It's wild how this caught astronomer's attention when there are several other light spots with a black circle in the middle. (Pay close attention to the other stars as it zooms into the black hole & you'll see what I mean.) It is mind boggling how they decipher what's what up there... It is absolutely incredible.

[@mpi_astro]

I'm afraid this is a misrepresentation of what you see. The dark spots you see inside the stars are instrumental artefacts. The camera pixels are saturated by the bright stars. You can't see the black hole in these images. The black hole can only be inferred by the star's motion.

[@PatrickKQ4HBD]

Think of it like shielding your eyes from the sun with your hand.

[@srJaime98]

You need to go to school REPLY

[@srJaime98]

@@mpi_astroyou deserve more likes idk how ppl are missing out your info

[@ashpun5998]

Black hole replaced by pink spot in my video, artifact?

[@santka3739]

Yes. See the answer of Author to the @Kamdan Express, please.

[@Kevin-kp8ds]

Would it be possible to observe the motion of the star using a CCD camera at an ~8 in telescope? i.e take multiple images and overlay them over the orbital period? Or would the motion not be apparent due to resolution constraints? (i.e full orbital period takes up only couple pixel deviation)

[@mpi_astro]

No, you can't do that. The spatial resolution of such a telescope is vastly insufficient. You also would need an Adaptive Optics system to overcome the blurring effect of the Earth's atmosphere.

[@antonpogorevici]

The orbit is about 0.002 arcseconds, which is the same resolution that the vlt has. it could probably image it but it would look like a blob rotating around itself, gaia bh2 has 0.004 arcseconds i think but it would still look pretty much the same.
the vlt has imaged the orbit of stars orbiting around sagitarius a, this probably would be slightly possible with a smaller telescope with adaptive optics over a longer period of time also the sagitarius a video was imaged in k band(around 2000nm) so as to se beyond the dust clouds which cover the galactic center.
you could try and image the orbits of binary stars like gamma vir, sirius and alpha centauri but it would take a couple of decades

[@ebenezergarbrah5255]

Too close for comfort? Are we safe since sagA* is only about 27,000 ly away?

[@LatvianAesthetics]

yea

[@PromQWearsPrada]

Pretty fucking far

[@noahetmqdh2817]

Ist das schwarze Loch gefährlich für die Erde oder für unser Sonnensystem

[@mpi_astro]

Nein. Schwarze Löcher sind erst einmal nicht gefährlicher als Sterne mit derselben Masse. Ihre Anziehungskraft wird auch nur durch ihre Masse bestimmt. Der Unterschied zu Sternen und anderen Himmelskörpern ist, dass sie für ihre Masse sehr klein sind und man nicht mehr von ihnen entkommt, wenn man ihnen zu nahe kommt. In diesem Fall sind das etwa 30 Kilometer.

[@SN-1006]

@@mpi_astro 'man' wird aber auch schon vor einer Annäherung auf 30 km (Schwarzschildradius) Probleme haben, sich wieder zu entfernen^^...

[@b14ckyy]

@@SN-1006 genau genommen nicht. Sofern du nicht gerade auf exakt perfektem kurs auf einer geraden linie auf das zentrum des schwarzen loches zu fliegst sondern eben mit mehr als 30km daran vorbei, wirst du zwar wie eine schleuder herum katapultiert und vermutlich immer noch in stücke gerissen aber der rest von dir fliegt einfach dran vorbei und wieder raus ins all.

[@fofopads4450]

Can the JWST capture a better close up image of the system?

[@DarthStew96]

Probably not. The first image of a black hole was achieved by setting up an array of telescopes in locations all around the world

[@mpi_astro]

No, it can't. It won't help anyway. The Gaia probe is the best tool to determine the motion of the star orbiting the black hole. The event horizon has a radius of only about 30 kilometers.

[@Redtigerr]

Whats the name of star orbiting gaia bh1

[@mpi_astro]

The star cannot be separated from the black hole. Therefore, for observational purposes, they are the same object. After all, it's the star the astronomers observed. They have only inferred the location of the back hole via its motion. Therefore, both objects belong to the designation Gaia BH1. However, if you want a more precice name you can use Gaia DR3 4373465352415301632. That is the designation from the Gaia DR3 catalog. That is definitely the star.

[@Redtigerr]

@@mpi_astro but it stellarium+ app when i search for the black hole gaia bh1 it doesn't show

[@mpi_astro]

@@Redtigerr Does it contain the Gaia DR3 stellar catalog?

[@Redtigerr]

@@mpi_astro i have another question The question is what if Sagittarius a* replaced by betelguese with its acreetion disk how bright would Sagittarius a* look if u can tell in magnitude then tell

[@santka3739]

Non-sense.

[@noahetmqdh2817]

Stellt das schwarze Loch eine Gefahr dar

[@1stHuemanAmerican]

I knew JESUS wasn't real that was quick

[@TM_Playz2010]

Bro what

[@TM_Playz2010]

What does that have to do with Jesus and how does it disprove him

[@TM_Playz2010]

You need to read the bible