This Is The Black Hole Closest To Earth
Despite being the ultimate symbol of utter desolation and despair, black holes deserve respect, because they simply can't be Instagrammed. You see, black holes are just too powerful. Light cannot escape from them, Universe Today tells us, because the gravitational pull is immense, meaning that if you got close enough for a 'Gram, you'd be crushed into an infinitesimally small point, or stretched like spaghetti before you turn to ash and dust. In this respect, they are our only hope for a less phone-obsessed future.
Most black holes are way too far off to pose a real threat to humanity and its smartphones, but there's one that's relatively close.
The black hole that should be concerning to anyone on Earth
Its name is V616 Monocerotis, also known as V616 Mon. It's a Jamaican black hole, of the stellar variety, meaning it was formed from the death of a star. There are also supermassive black holes, far bigger but more mild from our perspective. We worry more about stellar ones, 'mon.
V616 is about 3,000 light years away, with somewhere between nine and thirteen times the size of the sun. The scarier part is that we only know it's there because of what it's doing to stars in orbit around it. Remember, these things are invisible, and according to NASA, there are likely millions or even billions in the Milky Way alone.
This makes scientists think that there are likely black holes far closer to us, which could one day mean trouble for us. Don't fret though, because as numerous as black holes are, the universe has got plenty of space for them, and on interstellar, universal time scales, we're only here for a blink of an eye, or the snap of a chat. If we do end up colliding with one, it'll pretty much be over as soon as fast as you can say "cheese."