V723 Mon red giant and small mass gap black hole

Information about outbursts of eruptive stars, Be activity, ...
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Hamish Barker
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Joined: Thu Jun 20, 2019 12:11 am

V723 Mon red giant and small mass gap black hole

Post by Hamish Barker »

An interesting paper on what may be the closest black hole, about 1500LY. Apparently V723 Mon is a 1 solar mass red giant orbiting a (very small) 3 solar mass black hole. it is bright (circa mag 8) and they have unexplained Balmer emissions during eclipse of the red giant by the black hole, which need further investigation. I wonder if it could be an accretion disc. Perhaps a suitable target for amateurs to provide monitoring. The paper also reports that they think the red giant is distorted to an egg shape by the tidal forces of the black hole.

Coordinates
Right Ascension (R.A.) 06h 29m 04.66
Declination (Dec.) -05° 34` 20.4

So it is observable from sunset to about 10-11pm at the moment.

Here's the paper
https://t.co/3BA8rITkmp?amp=1
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