Astronomers have found the most massive stellar black hole in our galaxy, thanks to the wobbling motion it induces on a companion star. This artist’s impression shows the orbits of both the star and the black hole, dubbed Gaia BH3, around their common center of mass. Credit: ESO/L. CalçadaEuropean Space Agency’s Gaia mission
This artist’s impression compares side-by-side three stellar black holes in our galaxy: Gaia BH1, Cygnus X-1 and Gaia BH3, whose masses are 10, 21 and 33 times that of the Sun respectively. Gaia BH3 is the most massive stellar black hole found to date in the Milky Way. The radii of the black holes are directly proportional to their masses, but note that the black holes themselves have not been directly imaged. Credit: ESO/M.
Astronomers have found similarly massive black holes outside our galaxy , and have theorized that they may form from the collapse of stars with very few elements heavier than hydrogen and helium in their chemical composition. These so-called metal-poor stars are thought to lose less mass over their lifetimes and hence have more material left over to produce high-mass black holes after their death. But evidence directly linking metal-poor stars to high-mass black holes has been lacking until now.
This artist’s animation, done with Space Engine, shows the locations and distances to some of our galaxy’s stellar black holes: Gaia BH3, a black hole now found to be the most massive stellar black hole ever identified; Cygnus X-1, the next most massive stellar black hole; and Gaia BH1, the closest black hole to Earth. At the center of our galaxy, lurks Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole.
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