The most massive stellar black hole ever discovered in the Milky Way has been identified in data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission. The research was published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
The BH3 black hole was detected because it imposes a strange oscillating motion on the companion star orbiting around it. Its mass is 33 times greater than that of the Sun. Data from the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) and other ground-based telescopes were used to verify the mass.
Stellar black holes are formed by the collapse of massive stars, and those that have been detected in our Milky Way galaxy are on average about 10 times the size of the Sun. Even the next most massive stellar black hole previously detected (Cygnus X-1) reaches 21 solar masses.
It is clarified, however, that the most massive black hole in our Galaxy as a whole is Sagittarius A*, which has a volume of about four million times the mass of the Sun.
It is also noteworthy that this stellar black hole is very close to us, only 2,000 light-years away, in the constellation Aegis.
Source: APE – MEB
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