Black hole lurks '1,000 light-years from Earth'

Astronomers have a new candidate in their search for the nearest black hole to Earth. It's about 1,000 light-years away, or roughly 9.5 thousand, million, million km, in the Constellation Telescopium. That might not sound very close, but on the scale of the Universe, it's actually right next door. Scientists discovered the black hole from the way it interacts with two stars - one that orbits the hole, and the other that orbits this inner pair. In this animation, the stars are marked in blue. The black hole is marked in red.

Credit: ESO/L. Calçada