One of the new Milky Way black holes is three times closer than the previous record holder for the nearest black hole to Earth.
The team detected the black holes using combined data from the European Space Agency's Gaia mission and several ground-based observatories worldwide.
The black holes, dubbed Gaia BH1 and Gaia BH2, may be the first-ever examples of a new category of colossal space objects.Gaia BH1 is a relatively tiny 1,560 light-years from our solar system, meaning it is almost three times closer than the previous record holder. Gaia BH2 is a little further away, though it's still located a relatively close 3,800 light-years from Earth.
Both black holes are located within the Milky Way galaxy and are roughly 10 times more massive than our Sun. Though it's surprising that such massive objects could exist so close to Earth without being detected for so long,Unlike most black holes that have been detected to date, no remnants of other stars or gas clouds are floating near Gaia BH1 and Gaia BH2 – scientists have traditionally detected the cosmic giants by finding these remnants left over after the black hole ingests a neighboring space object.
Scientists refer to black holes that aren't snacking on stars or other objects as "dormant" or inactive black holes. As Gaia BH1 and Gaia BH2 are dormant, the scientists had to use a different method to detect the black holes. They detailed their method in a
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