Black holes sound like the stuff of nightmares, but luckily they're in space. Right? Apparently, scientists have found the Earth equivalent of black holes here. And they are in the Atlantic ocean.

The researchers from ETH Zurich and the University of Miami have been studying these large eddies of ocean water, some measuring 150 kilometers in diameter. They constantly rotate and drift through the Atlantic.

Using satellite imagery and some fancy math, the scientists learned to pinpoint where each water eddy begins and ends, leading to a new discovery: the whirlpools were mathematically same as black holes in space. These whirlpools can suck up nearby matter!

Black holes suck up light, making it bend around it in a loop. The ocean whirlpools do the same thing but with water.

The whirlpools may just be able to give us more insight of what happens with black holes in space. As for the function they serve,  we're still unclear but it could be one that benefits our own planet. The whirlpools transport warm, salty water north from the equatorial regions, which may be nature's way of balancing out the impact of global warming in oceans.

Via https://www.ethlife.ethz.ch/archive_articles/130923_black_holes_ocean_aj/index_EN%E2%80%9D" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">ETH Zurich