The biggest stellar black hole ever seen in the Milky Way galaxy has just been discovered by a collaboration of astronomers — and it's the second-closest one to us, parked just 2,000 light-years away. Published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics today, researchers describe how their discovery, now named Gaia BH3 (or BH3, for short) was thanks to the "wobbling" wink of a companion star orbiting the black hole.
BH3, it should be noted, is not supermassive — thus not the most "massive" (in technical terms) in the galaxy. That would be Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way whose mass is about 4 million times that of the sun. BH3, on the other hand, is the most massive in its category of stellar black holes, which were created by the collapse of a star. The discovery promises to let astrophysicists study whether and how this nearby astronomical powerhouse may be pulling in matter from its surroundings.
