European astronomers discover Milky Way’s largest stellar-mass black hole

Astronomers have found a massive black hole, BH3, in the Milky Way, just 2,000 light years away from the Earth, the Guardian reported in an article yesterday.

The celestial body, having 33 times the mass of the Sun, was discovered through its gravitational pull on a companion star in the constellation of Aquila, the source mentioned.

This surprise finding is the most massive stellar black hole in our galaxy and the second closest one discovered so far.

The black hole formed from the collapse of a massive star and was spotted in data from the data gathered by the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission, which aims to map a billion stars in 3D.