Astronomers have identified the most massive stellar-mass black hole in our Milky Way galaxy.
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It was discovered during analysis of data from the European Space Agency’s (ESO) Gaia mission, so the black hole was named Gaia BH3, or BH3 for short. This was reported by the ESO press service.
Gaia BH3 was discovered after noticing the strange “wobbly” motion of its companion star orbiting it. Observing the companion star also allowed astronomers to accurately measure the black hole’s mass.
A stellar mass black hole (or collapsar) is a black hole formed due to the gravitational collapse of a star. They have masses ranging from approximately five to several tens of solar masses. The mass of the black hole discovered by ESO turned out to be 33 times the mass of the Sun.
However, the next most massive stellar black hole known in our galaxy, Cygnus X-1, reaches only 21 solar masses, making the new discovery truly exceptional.
Also, this black hole, located in the earth’s sky in the constellation Eagle, is very close to us by cosmic standards – only 2 thousand light years away. Therefore, it is the second closest known black hole to Earth.
No one expected to find a large black hole that lurked nearby and had not yet been discovered, scientists note. “You can make such a discovery only once in your research life.”
The discovery of BH3 also confirmed the theory about the origin of such massive stellar-mass black holes that scientists had previously discovered outside our galaxy. It was assumed that they could be formed as a result of the collapse of stars, in the chemical composition of which there are very few elements heavier than hydrogen and helium:
- These so-called metal-poor stars are thought to lose less mass during their lives and therefore have more material to form high-mass black holes after their death;
- but evidence directly linking metal-poor stars to supermassive black holes has so far been lacking.
The stars in the pair tend to have similar compositions, meaning the BH3 companion contains important clues about the star that collapsed to form this exceptional black hole, the researchers note. “UV-vis spectrograph data showed that the companion was a very metal-poor star, indicating that the collapsed star that formed BH3 was also metal-poor—as expected.”
Scientists have discovered the closest black hole to Earth
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.