Jump98of 100 · 1,560 light years from Earth

Gaia BH1: the nearest known black hole

Gaia BH1 is the nearest known black hole to Earth, about 1,560 light years away. How it was found without being seen. Facts with sources.

Sky map from the Gaia satellite, with the Milky Way across it and the position of Gaia BH1 marked in red — Image: ESA/Gaia/DPAC (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO) · original

Curious facts

1,560 light years away

It lies about 1,560 light years away, in the constellation Ophiuchus, and has about 9.6 times the mass of the Sun. It is the nearest known black hole, less than half as far away as the previous record holder. ¹²
Found without being seen

A black hole like this cannot be seen. It was found in 2022 from the wobble of a Sun-like star orbiting it, measured by ESA’s Gaia satellite. ¹²
Not the only one

The same satellite has found two more, Gaia BH2 and Gaia BH3. All three are marked on ESA’s map above. ³

Gaia BH1 in Orbit

In the game, Gaia BH1 is jump 98 of the route, 1,560 light years from Earth. Its logbook card says:

Logbook · Jump 98

The nearest known black hole to Earth

I want to try Orbit Already in the group: download

Two steps with the Google account you use on Play: join the group, then download the test. Google Play can take a while, sometimes more than an hour, before it lets you download it; if you see “Item not found”, wait and try again.

What Orbit is like