Astronomers discover most massive stellar black hole in the Milky Way

The discovery of the bright star nearby suggests many more black holes could be found in the next set of data to be released from the Milky Way-mapping Gaia space telescope.

Astronomers have discovered the most massive stellar black hole in the Milky Way (ESO/L Calcada)

Astronomers have identified the most massive black hole that formed from an exploding star to be discovered in the Milky Way galaxy.

The European Space Agency’s Gaia mission, involving UCL researchers, found the black hole, known as Gaia-BH3, which is 33 times the mass of our Sun and located relatively close to Earth at 2,000 light years away.