Astro Brief: Invisible Black Holes

By Dr. Mike Reed

Published April 25, 2024 at 9:45 AM CDT

This artist’s impression compares side-by-side three stellar black holes in our galaxy: Gaia BH1, Cygnus X-1 and Gaia BH3, whose masses are 10, 21 and 33 times that of the Sun respectively. Gaia BH3 is the most massive stellar black hole found to date in the Milky Way. The radii of the black holes are directly proportional to their masses, but note that the black holes themselves have not been directly imaged.

Most massive black hole recently discovered in our own backyard

Recently, Gaia BH3 - a hugely massive blackhole - was found by astronomers using data from the Very Large Telescope at the European Southern Observatory. The black hole is unique not only in its immense size, but composition as well.

Join us this week as Mike investigates the discovery and how difficult black holes can be to find.

Astro Brief is a collaboration between KSMU, the Missouri Space Grant, and MSU's Department of Physics, Astronomy and Materials Science. Hosted by Dr. Mike Reed, Astro Brief focuses on astronomical events, the field of astronomy, and astronomy-related guests. It airs Thursdays at 9:45 am on KSMU.