Don’t worry about being so close to an all-consuming beast. Unlike some black holes, such as the supermassive one believed to be at the heart of our galaxy, this one is both small and doesn’t “violently” interact with its surroundings or broadcast its presence with X-rays. It’s one of the first discovered stellar-mass holes that’s truly black, making it comparatively peaceful.

The findings could prove valuable on a number of fronts. Confirmed black holes are rare to start with, let alone examples like this, and this will help scientists both understand star evolution and what to look for in their searches, including another system (LB-1) that may also have a hole. They could also help understand star collisions in trinary systems, and even shed more light on gravitational waves. This work by itself won’t fill in many gaps in humanity’s understanding of the universe, but it’s an important start.