In the case of NGC 1850 BH1, the scientist group from the University of Göttingen used the MUSE telescope from the European observatory to be able to study the movement of a star that is almost five times bigger than the Sun. This star is another object of the binary system and its behavior had been analyzed for years.
The astronomers discovered that this star had a very particular movement, which revealed that there is a black hole even though it is not seen directly. Doctor Stefan Dreizler also confirms this and says "When black holes form a system with another star, they affect the movement of the star in a very subtle but detectable way."