'Sleeping giant’ black hole discovered in our galaxy

A new "sleeping giant" black hole has been discovered in the Milky Way and it is the largest of its kind discovered in the galaxy.

The European Space Agency on Tuesday said scientists uncovered a “sleeping giant” black hole in the constellation Aquila less than 2,000 light-years from our planet. It is nearly 33 times the mass of our Sun, and this is the first time such a big black hole of stellar origin this big has been discovered in the Milky Way.

In fact, black holes of this type have only been discovered in very distant galaxies and the new discovery challenges scientific ideas about how massive stars come about and grow. In a black hole, matter is so densely packed that nothing can escape its colossal gravitational pull, not even light.

Astronomers at the European Space Agency (ESA) have identified the biggest stellar black hole, named Gaia BH3, discovered in the Milky Way, with a mass 33 times that of the Sun. This black hole was detected “by chance” during data collection from ESA’s Gaia mission and it imposes an odd ‘wobbling’ motion on the companion star orbiting it.
“Remarkably, this black hole is also extremely close to us — at a mere 2000 light-years away in the constellation Aquila, it is the second-closest known black hole to Earth,” a statement from ESA said.