The first thing we need to understand to identify a black hole is that black holes aren't holes. They're huge concentrations of matter crammed into really tiny spaces. And they spin. Sometimes extremely fast. For example, the fastest recorded black hole spins around 1,000 times per second.
The second is that black holes don't reflect or emit light. They are similar to an ultrafast roller coaster painted in Vanta black, except they are a little bit more dangerous. Getting close to a black hole might sound interesting, but it will cause a process known as spaghettification. What that means is that you will get squeezed horizontally and stretched vertically. So the real question is: do I or do I not want to resemble a noodle?
The third thing is that—unfortunately for physics enthusiasts who invested their money in an objectively speaking expensive telescope and the engineers, astronomers, companies and even countries that funded or helped the making of a scientific telescope— black holes can't be seen by telescopes.
The fourth thing is that: lucky for them, the effects a black hole has on their surroundings can be seen by a telescope! It's harder for amateurs or fans, but scientists have found different ways to detect and study black holes. One way we can figure out where a black hole is is that it can be surrounded by rings of gas and dust, called accretion disks, that emit light across many wavelengths, including X-rays. Another is that gigantic objects like black holes can bend and distort light from more remote objects. This effect, called gravitational lensing, can be used to find isolated— black holes that are otherwise invisible. One other way is that its intense gravity can cause stars to orbit around it in a particular way. Astronomers tracked the orbits of several stars near the center of the Milky Way to prove it houses a supermassive black hole.
The fifth and final thing to not disappoint the objectively expensive telescope buyers: what you can do with your telescope is that if you have a decent camera, mount and telescope, a typical imaging setup these days would be great, then you can measure the brightening of a system. Then as you stay let's say a few minutes in front of the telescope you can notice that the eclipsing —the blink-blink movement of the stars— is not constant. As you notice, congratulations! You have found a black hole. That is the evidence of the black hole is there between the stars.
In the end, black holes are a mystery to this day. Much studied, less understood. There's a lot we don't know, but that just means there's a lot we can discover. So get your telescopes out and next time look at the things between the stars, you might find something more interesting there.
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