00:00In 2020, astronomers turned their telescopes to a nearby star system and saw something interesting.
00:05Incredible. Two stars locked in orbit around what appeared to be a black hole.
00:10Located just a thousand light-years from Earth, it would be the nearest black hole to our solar system ever.
00:15Discovered. About three times nearer than the next closest candidate.
00:19Because...
00:20These black holes are too dark to observe directly, the team's evidence was based on the behavior of the two stars they...
00:25One of the stars seemed to be circling an unseen object in a tight orbit...
00:30...of 40 days or so.
00:31While the second star appeared to orbit both the black hole and the first star...
00:35...from a much further distance. However, new research shows that it may have all...
00:40...been a cosmic optical illusion the whole time.
00:43In a new paper, astronomers looked at...
00:45...that star system again, this time using the European Southern Observatory's very large telescope.
00:50Yes, that is what it's really called.
00:52The scientists found that the systems too...
00:55The two stars weren't far apart from each other after all, but actually orbited one another at about one-third...
01:00...of the distance between Earth and the Sun. It only appeared that they were spread apart because one stone...
01:05...the star was significantly smaller than the other, and rotated much more slowly. According to the research...
01:10...this is only possible if the larger star had literally stolen the atmosphere away from...
01:15...the smaller one, and a rarely seen phenomenon called stellar vampirism.
01:20The vampire star ballooned in mass and began to spin faster while the so-called donor...
01:25...star shrunk and slowed. With these two stars orbiting so closely together...
01:30...there is absolutely no room for a black hole in their solar system, the researcher said.
01:35That moves Earth's closest black hole back by a few thousand light years.
01:40But it also gives scientists a rare and eye-opening glimpse at the lives of vampire stars...
01:45...and their unfortunate companions.
01:50...you are one of the first female pilots and Ă–zcan's
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