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Key Information

V616 Mon

Type Black hole
Companion Orange main sequence
Diameter 40 miles
Mass 10 solar masses
Orbit Time 7 hours 45 minutes
Temperature 33,000 K (59,000 °F)
Distance from Earth 3,300 light years
Discovery Date 1986

Learning Point

  • V616 Mon is one of the closest black holes we know about, at just over three thousand light years. It orbits a nearby orange star, and was detected in 1986.
  • Black holes are super dense and heavy stars, in fact, the core or center of the stars that survive a supernova explosion.

Project

  • Draw The orange K star and the black hole of V616 Mon.
  • Overview
  • Black Hole Structures
  • Optical View
V616 Mon
The parts of a Black Hole
European Southern Observatory – ESO, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Optical View of a Black Hole
Pablo Carlos Budassi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Location

Located in Monoceros constellation

Fun Facts

  • V616 Mon is pulling gas from the nearby orange star, causing it to form an accretion disk of gas and matter in orbit around the black hole.
  • The black hole and orange star orbit each other in less than six hours.
  • This black hole is 10 times the weight of our sun, and was identified as a black hole in 1986.
  • The star system emitted a very high X-Ray burst in 1975, but it was a decade before they fully understood what it meant.

Past Lessons

56 September 6, 2022 (North America)
141 September 14, 2023 (International)
No Past Lessons

Upcoming Lessons

No Upcoming Lessons