European astronomers(天文学家)say they have found the closest black hole to Earth ever discovered. The object is about 1,000 light years(光年)away. It's close enough that the two stars nearest to it can even be seen with our eyes.
"An object that can't be seen and has a mass(质量)of at least four times that of the sun can only be a black hole," said Thomas Rivinius, who led the research.
So what is a black hole? A black hole is an area in space that nothing, not even light, can escape from, because gravity(引力) is so strong there. Astronomers can only find black holes by the objects around them.
Astronomers noticed the stars around the black hole from La Silla Observatory, in Chile. They were studying a two-star system called HR 6819. They watched it for months. The way the stars moved told them something else was there.
Rivinius said, "The system is about 140 million years old. The black hole itself probably began forming 15 million years ago. This discovery may be just a tip of the iceberg(冰山一角). There could be more black holes near Earth."
Other astronomers agree. There may be 100 million to 1 billion of these objects in our galaxy(银河系). "There may be black holes much closer than this one." said Avi Lob from Harvard University.
"If you find an ant in your kitchen, there must be many more out there."