Gaia BH1

the nearest known black hole · dormant · 9.6 Suns

1,560 light-years from Earth

The closest black hole we know of, 1,560 light-years away. It is not feeding, so it gives off no light at all: astronomers found it in 2022 from the wobble of the Sun-like star that circles it every 186 days. Look through it at that star and its light bends into arcs around the shadow.

• event horizon 57 km across, smaller than a city
• its companion orbits 1.4 AU away, about the distance of Mars from the Sun

kind

black hole

size

57 km across (event horizon)