UVES data tagged posts

Most Massive Stellar Black Hole in our Galaxy found

The image shows an artist’s impression of a massive star, shining brightly in a white-yellow colour, orbiting a stellar black hole. The star’s orbital path is elliptical, outlined faintly in blue, with the major axis oriented vertically. The black hole is only visible as a red circular outline, and is located towards the bottom of the ellipse.
Artist’s impression of the system with the most massive stellar black hole in our galaxy

Astronomers have identified the most massive stellar black hole yet discovered in the Milky Way galaxy. This black hole was spotted in data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission because it imposes an odd ‘wobbling’ motion on the companion star orbiting it. Data from the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) and other ground-based observatories were used to verify the mass of the black hole, putting it at an impressive 33 times that of the Sun.

Stellar black holes are formed from the collapse of massive stars and the ones previously identified in the Milky Way are on average about 10 times as massive as the Sun...

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