This is a list of known black holes that are close to the Solar System.
It is thought that most black holes are solitary, but black holes in binary or larger systems are much easier to detect. [1] Solitary black holes can generally only be detected by measuring their gravitational distortion of the light from more distant objects. As of February 2022, only one isolated black hole has been confirmed, OGLE-2011-BLG-0462, around 5,200 light-years away. [2]
The nearest known black hole is Gaia BH1, which was discovered in September 2022 by a team led by Kareem El-Badry. Gaia BH1 is 1,560 light-years away from Earth in the direction of the constellation Ophiuchus. [3]
For comparison, the nearest star to the Sun (Proxima Centauri) is about 4.24 light-years away, and the Milky Way galaxy is approximately 100,000 light-years in diameter.
Distance | System | Component | Notes and additional references | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
(ly) | (kpc) | Designation | Description | Right ascension [4] (Epoch J2000.0) | Declination [4] (Epoch J2000.0) | Discovery date [5] | Designation | Stellar class | Mass (M☉) | |
1,560±10 | 0.478±0.005 | Gaia BH1 (TIC 125470397) | Binary system with orbit t=185.63 d and eccentricity e=0.45 [3] | 17h 28m 41.09s | −00° 34′ 51.93″ | 2022 | A | BH | 9.78 | [3] |
B | G | 0.93 | ||||||||
1,840±30 | 0.5906±0.0058 | Gaia BH3 (Gaia DR3 4318465066420528000) | Binary system with orbit t=11.6 yr and eccentricity e=0.7291 | 19h 39m 18.72s | +14° 55′ 54.2″ | 2024 | A | BH | 32.70±0.82 | [6] |
B | G | 0.76±0.05 | ||||||||
3,800±80 | 1.16±0.02 | Gaia BH2 (Gaia DR3 5870569352746779008) | Binary system with orbit t=1276.7 d and eccentricity e=0.518 | 13h 50m 16.728s | −59° 14′ 20.42″ | 2023 | A | BH | 8.93 | [7] [8] |
B | K III | 1.07 | ||||||||
3,800+2,700 −2,000 | 1.18+0.82 −0.63 | Gaia18ajz | Candidate for isolated black hole detected by microlensing [9] | 18h 30m 14.460s | −08° 13′ 12.756″ | 2024 | BH | 12.0+14.9 −5.4 | Most probable solution parameters shown. Another solution has a mass of 5.6 MSol. | |
4,700±800 | 1.44±0.25 | A0620-00 (V616 Mon) | Binary star system with orbit t=7.75 h | 06h 22m 44.503s [10] | −00° 20′ 44.72″ [10] | 1986 | A | BH | 11.0±1.9 | Low-mass X-ray binary |
B | K [11] | 0.5±0.3 | ||||||||
5,150±590 | 1.58±0.18 | MOA-2011-BLG-191 or OGLE-2011-BLG-0462 | Isolated black hole detected by microlensing [2] | 17h 51m 40.2082s | −29° 53′ 26.50″ | 2022 | BH | 7.1±1.3 | First confirmed black hole detected via microlensing | |
5,400+6,900 −1,900 | 1.7±1.4 | GRS 1124-683 (GU Muscae) | Binary star system with orbit t=10.38 h | 11h 26m 26.60s | −68° 40′ 32.3″ | 1991 Jan 20 | A | BH | 6.95±1.1 | |
B | K | 0.9±0.3 | ||||||||
5,720±300 | 1.7±0.1 | XTE J1118+480 | 11h 18m 11s | 48° 02′ 13″ | 2000 | A | BH | 6–6.5 | ||
B | M | 0.2 | ||||||||
7,300±200 | 2.25±0.08 | Cygnus X-1 (Cyg X-1) | Binary star system with orbit t=5.6 d | 19h 58m 21.676s [12] | +35° 12′ 05.78″ [12] | 1971 April–May | Cyg X-1 | BH | 15±1 | The first X-ray source widely accepted to be a black hole. |
HDE 226868 | O [13] | 30±10 | ||||||||
7,800±460 | 2.39±0.14 | V404 Cygni | Binary star system with orbit t=6.5 d | 20h 24m 03.83s [14] | +33° 52′ 02.2″ [14] | 1989 May 22 | A | BH | 9 | First black hole to have an accurate parallax measurement of its distance from our solar system |
B | K [4] | 0.7 | Early K giant star | |||||||
8,100±1,000 | 2.49±0.30 | GRO J0422+32 | Binary star system with orbit t=5.09 h | 04h 21m 42.723s | +32° 54′ 26.94″ | 1992 Aug 5 | A | BH | 3.97±0.95 | |
B | M1 | 0.5±0.1 | ||||||||
8,150 | 2.5 | MACHO-96-BLG-5 | Candidate isolated black hole detected by microlensing [15] | 18h 05m 2.50s | −27° 42′ 17″ | 2001 | BH | 5.30+1.14 −0.96 | Very strong candidate, parameters listed are of best fit | |
8,800±2,300 | 2.7±0.7 | GS 2000+25 | 20h 02m 50s | +25° 14′ 11″ | 1988 | A | BH | 7.5 | ||
B | M | 0.5 | ||||||||
9,260+6,330 −5,450 | 2.84+1.94 −1.67 | Gaia18cbf | Candidate isolated mass-gap black hole detected by microlensing [16] | 16h 04m 38.862s | −41° 06′ 17.32″ | 2022 | BH | 2.65+5.09 −1.48 | Best fit. Second-best fit has a mass of 1.71 MSol, which would make it a neutron star. | |
11,000±980 | 3.4±0.3 | Swift J1727.8−1613 | Detected via a transient X-ray event [17] | 17h 27m 46.0s [17] | −16° 12′ 5.3″ [17] | 2023 | A | BH | 3.12±0.10 | [18] |
B | K4V | <0.78 | [18] | |||||||
11,100±700 | 3.4±0.2 | Cygnus X-3 | Binary star system with orbit t=4.8 h | 20h 32m 25.766s | +40° 57′ 28.26″ | 1967 | Cyg X-3 | BH | 2.4+2.1 −1.1 [19] | |
V1521 Cyg | WN | 10.3+3.9 −2.8 [19] | ||||||||
11,400 | 3.5 | MACHO-98-BLG-6 | Candidate isolated mass-gap black hole detected by microlensing [15] | 17h 57m 32.80s | −28° 42′ 45″ | 2001 | BH | 3.17+0.52 −0.48 | Very strong candidate, parameters listed are of best fit | |
11,900±3,600 | 3.7±1.1 | GRO J1655-40 | Binary star system with orbit t = 2.6 d | 16h 54m 00.137s | −39° 50′ 44.90″ | 1994 | A | BH | 5.31±0.07 | |
V1033 Sco | F5IV | 1.9±0.3 | ||||||||
15,700 | 4.8 | MACHO-99-BLG-22 | Candidate isolated black hole detected by microlensing [20] | 18h 05m 05.28s | −28° 34′ 41.70″ | 2002 | BH | 7.5 | Very strong candidate | |
25,600±600 | 7.86±0.2 | Sagittarius A* | Supermassive black hole | 17h 45m 40.0409s | −29° 0′ 28.118″ | 1974 | BH | 4,154,000 ± 14,000 | Center of the Galaxy | |
29,700±2,700 | 9.1±0.8 | 4U 1543-475 | Binary star system with orbit t = 26.8 h | 15h 47m 08.277s | −47° 40′ 10.28″ | 1971 | A | BH | 9.4±2.0 | |
B | A2V | 2.7±1.0 | ||||||||
This is a succession of black holes that have been known as the nearest black hole.
Date | Distance | Name | Mass | Type | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2022— | 1,600 ly (1.5×1016 km; 9.4×1015 mi) | Gaia BH1 | 9.62 solar masses (1.913×1031 kg; 4.22×1031 lb) | Main-sequence star with dormant compact mass binary | First dormant black hole discovered, first Sun-like star in black hole binary system discovered: First detected via positional shifts of visible companion | [21] [22] [23] |
1986—2022 | 3,000 ly (2.8×1016 km; 1.8×1016 mi) | V616 Monocerotis (A0620−00) | 5.86 M☉ (1.165×1031 kg; 2.57×1031 lb) | Visible variable star X-ray binary system | First observed in X-rays | [24] [25] [23] |
1975—1986 | 6,070 ly (5.74×1016 km; 3.57×1016 mi) | Cygnus X-1 | 14.8 M☉ (2.94×1031 kg; 6.5×1031 lb) | X-ray binary system | First black hole discovered: first observed in 1964 in X-rays, first speculated as black hole in 1972, first confirmed black hole in 1975, accepted as a black hole by 1990 | [26] [27] [23] |