This is the first direct evidence of an isolated black hole

The result belongs to the Kailash Sahu group

Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore

. Astronomers estimate that there are 100 million black holes wandering among the stars of the universe

Milky Way

but so far they have not recognized an isolated person.

The one found by Hubble is about 5,000 light-years away, in the Carina-Sagittarius spiral arm of our galaxy. Its discovery allowed researchers to estimate that the closest single stellar-mass black hole to us could be about 80 light-years away (by comparison, the closest star to our solar system,

Proxima Centauri

a little over four light years). Calculations by Chasso’s team indicate that the black hole travels through the galaxy at 160,000 kilometers per hour – a speed faster than most surrounding stars, allowing it to travel from Earth to the Moon in less than three hours.

According to a second research group led by

Casey L

From the University of California, Berkeley, it cannot be excluded that the final object in the Hubble viewfinder is not a black hole but a neutron star (in fact, their calculations show a smaller mass, between 1.6 and 4, 4 times the mass of the Sun). “Whatever – defines Lam – the object is the first dark stellar remnant discovered wandering the galaxy unaccompanied by another star.”