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LiveScience
LiveScience
Ben Turner

Most massive stellar black hole in the Milky Way discovered 'extremely close' to Earth

An artist's illustration of the black hole and its orbiting star.

Astronomers have found the most massive stellar-mass black hole ever discovered in our galaxy — and it's lurking "extremely close" to Earth, according to new research.

The black hole, named Gaia BH3, is 33 times more massive than our sun. Cygnus X-1, the next-biggest stellar black hole known in our galaxy, weighs only 21 solar masses. The newfound black hole is located roughly 2,000 light-years away in the constellation Aquila, making it the second-closest known black hole to Earth.

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