Patcay.com – Astronomical researchers have successfully uncovered a remarkable natural phenomenon: a giant black hole surpassing the size of the Sun by 33 times, conveniently located near Earth.
This astonishing discovery was announced by the research community on Tuesday, April 16, through the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Named Gaia BH3, this black hole has garnered attention for being the largest ever detected in the Milky Way Galaxy. Situated approximately 2,000 light-years from Earth, in the Aquila constellation, it becomes the second closest black hole to Earth.
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Dr. Pasquale Panuzzo, an astronomer and member of the Gaia collaboration at the Observatoire de Paris, stated, “Gaia BH3 is the original black hole from the remnants of the largest stars in our galaxy and is the second closest one we have found to date.”
“No other black hole can rival this magnitude outside of the central black hole in the Milky Way Galaxy,” he added.
Research on the companion stars of BH3 revealed no signs of contamination by material released from stars during explosions, which typically form black holes. This indicates that Gaia BH3 formed long before its companion star became trapped in a strong gravitational field.
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Although Gaia BH3 has a larger mass compared to other star black holes in the Milky Way, BH3 still shares similarities with some black holes detected through gravitational waves, generated when black holes collide in distant galaxies.
Through observations with the Very Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory in the Atacama Desert, Chile, it was confirmed that the mass of Gaia BH3 and its companion star’s orbit around the black hole occurs every 11.6 years.
To obtain further details about Gaia BH3, researchers utilized the Gaia spacecraft owned by the European Space Agency.
Dr. Panuzzo stated, “Following this revelation, we hope to conduct further observations soon to see if there are any emissions originating from the black hole.”
This initial discovery revealed that the stars orbiting Gaia BH3 are “metal-poor,” meaning they contain lighter elements such as hydrogen and helium.
Although official data from the Gaia project will be released by the end of 2025, the significant interest in this discovery has prompted the international team to publish details about BH3 earlier, enabling astronomers to study it promptly.