Milky Way's second largest black hole discovered: Astronomers reveal strange findings

Photo Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

Astronomers have made an incredible discovery: a black hole in our Milky Way that weighs 33 times more than our sun. This black hole is the second-largest ever found in our galaxy, next only to the massive one sitting at the Milky Way's centre.

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Location: This colossal black hole resides just 2,000 light-years away from us, relatively close on a cosmic scale. It's nestled in the Aquila constellation and is accompanied by a star that orbits around it.

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What is a Black Hole?: Black holes are incredibly dense entities with gravitational pull so intense that not even light can escape from them. Spotting them is challenging, but this one was identified thanks to the wobble it induced in its companion star.

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Observation: Data from the Gaia mission by the European Space Agency helped astronomers spot this black hole. Ground-based observatories like the Very Large Telescope in Chile were also crucial in confirming its existence and mass.

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Named Gaia BH3, this black hole has some intriguing traits. It and its companion star move in the opposite direction of typical star orbits in the Milky Way, defying expectations.

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Gaia BH3 likely formed after a star more than 40 times the mass of our sun died. Black holes like this, originating from the collapse of a single star, are known as stellar black holes.

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While Gaia BH3 is colossal, it's dwarfed by supermassive black holes found at the hearts of galaxies. For example, Sagittarius A*, at the Milky Way's core, is 4 million times the mass of our sun.

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"This black hole is not only very massive, it is also very peculiar in many aspects," remarked Pasquale Panuzzo, lead author of the study. The discovery challenges previous expectations and opens new avenues for research.

Photo Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

Data from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile and other ground-based observatories were crucial in confirming Gaia BH3's mass and characteristics.

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The discovery of Gaia BH3 sheds light on the mysteries of the cosmos and underscores the ongoing quest to unravel the secrets of black holes, one of the most enigmatic phenomena in the universe.