A groundbreaking discovery has been made by scientists from the Gaia mission of the European Space Agency - a “sleeping” black hole in the Milky Way galaxy with a mass of 33 solar masses. This black hole, known as Gaia BH3, is the most massive black hole resulting from the evolution of a star ever found in our galaxy.
Located approximately 590 parsecs from Earth in the constellation of the Eagle, Gaia BH3 is part of a binary system where a black hole and a star revolve around each other. Additional data from telescopes like the Very Large Telescope ESO in Chile have confirmed that this black hole’s mass is 33 times greater than that of our Sun.
What makes Gaia BH3 unique is that it is not consuming material from its companion star, earning it the nickname of a “sleeping” black hole. Its presence is only detectable through gravitational attraction with the companion star, as no material is falling onto the black hole to emit light due to friction.
The discovery of Gaia BH3 was made possible by analyzing tiny oscillations in the star’s motion caused by the invisible black hole’s gravitational pull. With a mass significantly larger than the typical black holes in our galaxy, which usually do not exceed 15 solar masses, Gaia BH3 challenges current theories of stellar evolution.
This unexpected finding of a high-mass black hole challenges existing scientific knowledge and opens up new possibilities for understanding the mysteries of the universe.
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