CAPE CANAVERAL: Scientists have discovered the nearest black hole to Earth just 1600 light years, says astronomers

According to the latest science reports, this black hole is 10 times as massive as our sun. It is also three times closer than its previous record-holder.

It was identified by observing the motion of its companion star, which orbits the black hole at about the same distance as Earth orbits the sun.

The black hole was initially identified using the European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft, said Kareem El-Badry of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

El-Badry confirmed his findings by contacting the International Gemini Observatory in Hawaii, which they published in Royal Astronomical Society's Monthly Notices.

The researchers are uncertain how the system formed in the Milky Way. Named Gaia BH1, it’s located in the constellation Ophiuchus, the serpent-bearer.