Scientists Find Massive Black Hole Lurking Near Earth, 6 Key Points

Scientists have discovered what they call “Milky Way's most massive" black hole yet. To put its size into perspective, it’s at least 33 times bigger than the Sun and located 2,000 light years away from us.

The black hole has been named Gaia BH3. It’s the second-closest black hole to Earth and sits in the Aquila constellation. Gaia is a Latin word which means “the eagle”.

Black holes are formed when stars reach the end of their lives.

Most of these stars inflate, lose mass and cool down to become “white dwarfs” but others lose less mass that don’t contain heavy elements. These stars are called ‘metal-poor stars’ and instead of becoming white dwarfs, they collapse in on themselves and form a black hole.

Scientists at NASA believe there are more than 50 stellar black holes in the Milky Way galaxy.

Earlier in January, astronomers said they had discovered the oldest black hole ever, dating back to the early universe more than 13 billion years ago.