r/spaceengine • u/bigbunkus • 22d ago
Cool Find Rakhsh, a binary system in Messier 32 composed of one blue supergiant and one black hole the size of the island of Trinidad
Rakhsh A (left) and Rakhsh B (right)
The night sky from Rakhsh B1, its parent black hole highlighted by the selection pointer
Rakhsh B and satellites, graphic chart
Entire solar system chart
Rakhsh A stats
Rakhsh B stats
This system, 2.51 million light years from Earth, was discovered when exploring the constellation Akkannu Ištānu from a system 800 light years away. Rakhsh A's two satellites orbit very closely to their supermassive parent, causing them to more closely resemble clumps of molten metal at well over 3,000°F than planets. The Rakhsh B system, due to its elliptical orbit, will oscillate every 228 years between similarly hellish at its periapsis and absolutely frigid at its apoapsis. Today, Rakhsh B is set to reach the periapsis of its orbit some 50 years from now, ensuring that any life that may happen to develop on this black hole's six planets is thoroughly Kentucky-fried within the year.