A giant black hole in the Milky Way

A sleeping giant

The European Space Agency’s Gaia mission has discovered a black hole 33 times the mass of the Sun. It is in the constellation Aquila, less than 2000 light-years from Earth.  

This is the most massive black hole of stellar origin ever found in the Milky Way. It was found due to its gravitational pull on a star that is orbiting it, which is very likely to have been formed in the same birth cluster. Since we can study this star in rich detail, it may teach us about the origins of black holes of these high masses, which have previously been detected through the gravitational waves emitted when they merge with another massive object.

Learn more

University of Leicester scientists are long-standing members of the Gaia collaboration. You can learn more about this discovery through the University of Leicester news story on the topic.