List of nearest known black holes

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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☉)
1560±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
1840±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
3800±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
3800+2700
−2000 		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.
4700±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
5150±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
5400+6900
−1900 		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
5720±300 1.7±0.1 XTE J1118+480 11h 18m 11s 48° 02′ 13″ 2000 A BH 6–6.5
B M 0.2
7300±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
7800±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
8100±1000 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
8150 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
8800±2300 2.7±0.7 GS 2000+25 20h 02m 50s +25° 14′ 11″ 1988 A BH 7.5
B M 0.5
9260+6330
−5450 		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
11000±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]
11100±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]
11400 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
11900±3600 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
15700 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
25600±600 7.86±0.2 Sagittarius A* Supermassive black hole 17h 45m 40.0409s −29° 0′ 28.118″ 1974 BH 4154000 ± 14000 Center of the Galaxy
29700±2700 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 M☉ (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

References

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  3. ^ a b c El-Badry, Kareem; Rix, Hans-Walter; Quataert, Eliot; Howard, Andrew W.; Isaacson, Howard; Fuller, Jim; Hawkins, Keith; Breivik, Katelyn; Wong, Kaze W. K.; Rodriguez, Antonio C.; Conroy, Charlie; Shahaf, Sahar; Mazeh, Tsevi; Arenou, Frédéric; Burdge, Kevin B.; Bashi, Dolev; Faigler, Simchon; Weisz, Daniel R.; Seeburger, Rhys; Monter, Silvia Almada; Wojno, Jennifer (2023). "A Sun-like star orbiting a black hole". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 518 (1): 1057–1085. arXiv:2209.06833. Bibcode:2023MNRAS.518.1057E. doi:10.1093/mnras/stac3140.
  4. ^ a b c "The One Hundred Nearest Star Systems". Research Consortium on Nearby Stars. GSU. 2007-09-17. Retrieved 2007-11-06.
  5. ^ Before 1900: earliest certain recorded observation. 1900–1930: first catalogued. After 1930: earliest trigonometric or spectroscopic parallax.
  6. ^ Panuzzo, P. (2024). "Discovery of a dormant 33 solar-mass black hole in pre-release Gaia astrometry". The Astrophysical Journal. 686: L2. arXiv:2404.10486. Bibcode:2024A&A...686L...2G. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202449763.
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