List of nearest known black holes

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

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.

List

See also: Stellar black hole § Candidates

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

Nearest black hole record holders

This is a succession of black holes that have been known as the nearest black hole.

Nearest black hole titleholders

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]

See also

• List of black holes
• List of most massive black holes
• Lists of astronomical objects
• List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs
• NGC 3201 – a globular cluster with many black holes
• NGC 7727 – a galaxy with the closest confirmed binary black hole at 89 million light-years away

References

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5. Before 1900: earliest certain recorded observation. 1900–1930: first catalogued. After 1930: earliest trigonometric or spectroscopic parallax.
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