Record-Breaking Stellar Black Hole Found Lurking Close to Earth

You never really know what you might find hiding in your own backyard, especially if those things are particularly adept at escaping detection.

Just 1,924 light-years from the Solar System, in the constellation of Aquila, astronomers have just discovered a black hole.

And it’s not just any black hole. Named Gaia BH3, or BH3, the object is the most massive stellar-mass black hole we’ve ever spotted in the Milky Way, clocking in at a hefty 33 times the mass of the Sun.

It’s the second-closest black hole we’ve found to our homeworld, and it’s just hanging out, quietly in space, minding its own black hole business. The only reason we know it’s there is because it’s in a binary orbit with a companion star whose motion can’t be explained any other way.