The European Space Agency’s Gaia mission has made a startling discovery a massive black hole lurking just 1,926 light-years from Earth. Named Gaia BH3 the stellar-origin black hole has a mass 33 times that of the sun making it the largest of its kind discovered in the Milky Way to date.
Gaia BH3 is part of a binary star system orbiting a “subgiant” star about five times the size of our sun. The black hole is classified as “dormant” as it does not appear to be actively attracting nearby stars or dust a characteristic that makes dormant black holes much more challenging to detect through conventional astronomical methods.
Lead researcher Pasquale Panuzzo from the Observatoire de Paris expressed his astonishment at the discovery stating “No one was expecting to find a high-mass black hole lurking nearby, undetected so far. This is the kind of discovery you make once in your research life.”
The chemical composition of the companion star which mirrors that found in old metal-poor stars within the galaxy supports theories that more massive black holes can form from metal-poor stars. The findings from Gaia BH3 could lead to groundbreaking discoveries in several branches of astronomy and could refine approaches to exploring many other celestial phenomena.
The discovery has electrified space enthusiasts, offering further developments and the promise of even further growth in what continues proving to be a fluid and dynamic area of scientific discovery.
