Free Astronomy Magazine July-August 2024

46 JULY-AUGUST 2024 ASTRO PUBLISHING by ESO − Bárbara Ferreira Most massive stellar black hole in our galaxy found T his artist’s impression shows the orbits of both the star and the black hole, dubbed Gaia BH3, around their common centre of mass. This wobbling was measured over several years with the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission. Additional data from other telescopes, including ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile, confirmed that the mass of this black hole is 33 times that of our Sun. The chemical composition of the companion star suggests that the black hole was formed after the collapse of a massive star with very few heavy elements, or metals, as predicted by theory. [ESO/L. Calçada/Space Engine (spaceengine.org) ]