Astronomers confirm 'nearby' black hole

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 18 (UPI) -- The light from a supernova seen by an amateur astronomer in 1979 may be hiding a black hole formed when the massive star collapsed, U.S. astronomers say.

Powerful instruments including NASA's Chandra X-ray observatory have now observed the supernova located 50 million light years from Earth and provided strong evidence of a black hole hidden behind the light emitted from the explosion, Britain's The Independent reported Thursday.

Data from the various observations revealed a strong reading of X-rays from the supernova that remained steady from 1995 to 2007, suggesting the object is a black hole being fed by material falling back into it.

"If our interpretation is correct, this is the nearest example where the birth of a black hole has been observed," Daniel Patnaude of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., says.

Scientists believe that such supernovas are in fact the most common way that black holes are created, which is why the nearby discovery is so interesting, Abraham Loeb of the Harvard center says.

"This may be the first time the common way of making a black hole has been observed," he says.

"However, it is very difficult to detect this type of black hole birth because decades of X-ray observations are needed to make the case," Loeb says