Astronomers have discovered the most massive stellar black hole known in the Milky Way after detecting an unusual wobble in space. It is Gaia BH3, its mass is nearly 33 times that of the Sun, its diameter is nearly 33 times that of the Sun, it is 1,926 light-years away from the Earth, and it is located in the constellation Aquila. It is the second closest known black hole to the Earth. The nearest black hole is Gaia BH1, which is about 1,500 light-years away and has a mass nearly 10 times that of the sun. The researchers didn’t expect to find anything, but a strange motion caused by Gaia BH3’s gravitational influence on a nearby companion star caught their attention. Many dormant black holes don’t have companion stars close enough to engulf them, so they are harder to detect and go undetected. But other stellar black holes will absorb material from companion stars, and this material exchange will release bright X-rays that can be observed through telescopes. dance. New clues about how such massive black holes form. The findings were published Tuesday in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. Discovering a hitherto undiscovered massive black hole. This is a discovery you make in your research career. , but that’s because it’s a supermassive black hole, not a stellar black hole. The clouds collapsed. Stellar black holes form when massive stars die. Therefore, Gaia BH3 is the most massive black hole in the Milky Way, formed by the death of a massive star. Before the discovery of Gaia BH3, the largest known stellar black hole in our galaxy was Cygnus X-1, which was 21 times more massive than the Sun. While Gaia BH3 is a special discovery in the Milky Way by astronomers’ standards, its mass is similar to objects found in very distant galaxies. Formed when stars collapse. These stars, whose heaviest elements include hydrogen and helium, are thought to lose less mass over their lifetimes, so they end up with more material to form high-mass black holes. Metal-poor stars linked together until they discovered Gaea BH3. As expected, the researchers found that the stars orbiting Gaia BH3 were devoid of metals, meaning the stars that formed Gaia BH3 were likely the same ones. Elisabetta Caffau, a member of the observatory’s Gaia Collaboration, said in a statement that ancient, metal-poor stars in the Milky Way. forward. The star’s trajectory is in the opposite direction to the motion of many stars in the Milky Way’s disk, suggesting it is part of a small galaxy that merged with the Milky Way more than 8 billion years ago. giant black hole and uncover more of its secrets without waiting for the rest of the Gaia data, scheduled to be released in late 2025. Scientific Director Carol Mundell said in a statement. Its findings go far beyond the mission’s original purpose of creating an extremely accurate multi-dimensional map of the entire galaxy’s more than one billion stars.
Astronomers have discovered the most massive stellar black hole known in the Milky Way after detecting an unusual wobble in space.
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This so-called sleeping giant is called Gaia BH3. It is almost 33 times the mass of the sun. It is located in the constellation Aquila and is 1,926 light-years away from the earth. It is the second closest known black hole to the earth. The nearest black hole is Gaia BH1, which is about 1,500 light-years away and has a mass almost 10 times that of the sun.
Astronomers discovered the black hole while combing through observations from the European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescope for the upcoming release of data to the scientific community. The researchers didn’t expect to find much, but strange movements caused by Gaia BH3’s gravitational influence on nearby companions caught their attention.
Many dormant black holes don’t have a companion star close enough to engulf them, so they are harder to detect and don’t produce any light. But other stellar black holes will absorb material from companion stars, and this material exchange will release bright X-rays that can be observed through telescopes.
The wobbling motion of an ancient giant star in the constellation Aquila suggests that it is in an orbital dance with a dormant black hole, the third such dormant black hole discovered by Gaia.
Researchers used the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile’s Atacama Desert and other ground-based observatories to confirm the mass of Gaia BH3. Their study also provides new clues about how such a huge black hole formed. The findings were published Tuesday in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
The study’s lead author, Pasquale Panuzzo, an astronomer at the French National Center for Scientific Research in Paris and a member of the Gaia collaboration, said that no one expected to find a hitherto undiscovered giant nearby. Mass black hole. This is a once-in-a-lifetime discovery.
Secrets of ancient stars
The title of the most massive black hole in our galaxy will always belong to Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy with a mass of about 4 million times that of the sun, but that’s because it’s a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy. Supermassive black holes, not stellar black holes.
Little is known about the process by which supermassive black holes form, but one theory suggests it happens when giant cosmic clouds collapse. Stellar black holes form when massive stars die. Therefore, Gaia BH3 is the most massive black hole in our galaxy, formed from the death of a massive star.
The average mass of stellar black holes observed in the Milky Way is about 10 times that of the Sun. Before the discovery of Gaia BH3, the largest known stellar black hole in our galaxy was Cygnus X-1, which was 21 times more massive than the Sun. While Gaia BH3 is a special discovery in our galaxy by astronomers’ standards, its mass is similar to objects found in very distant galaxies.
Scientists believe that stellar black holes with masses such as Gaia’s BH3 form when metal-poor stars collapse. These stars, whose heaviest elements include hydrogen and helium, are thought to lose less mass over their lifetimes, so they end up with more material to form high-mass black holes.
But until the discovery of Gaia BH3, astronomers had been unable to find evidence of a direct connection between massive black holes and metal-poor stars.
The study authors said paired stars tend to have similar compositions. As expected, the researchers found that the stars orbiting Gaia BH3 were devoid of metals, meaning the stars that formed Gaia BH3 were likely the same ones.
“I was impressed that the chemistry of the companion star was similar to that found in ancient, metal-poor stars in the Milky Way,” study co-author Elisabetta Caffau, a member of the Gaia Collaboration at the Paris Observatory, said in a statement The ingredients are similar.
The stars orbiting Gaia BH3 were likely formed in the first 2 billion years after the creation of the universe at the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago. The star’s trajectory is in the opposite direction to the motion of many stars in the Milky Way’s disk, suggesting it is part of a small galaxy that merged with the Milky Way more than 8 billion years ago.
Now, the team hopes this research will allow other astronomers to study the massive black hole and uncover more of its secrets, without having to wait for the rest of the data to be released by the Gaia program in late 2025.
“It’s impressive to see the transformative impact Gaia is having on astronomy and astrophysics,” ESA science director Carol Mundell said in a statement. Its findings go far beyond the mission’s original purpose of creating an extremely accurate multi-dimensional map of more than a billion stars across the Milky Way.
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