The enormous stellar black hole hiding in Earth's backyard: Scientists discover a huge void in the Milky Way that's 33 times as massive as the Sun
- The black hole, called Gaia BH3, is a mere 2000 light-years away from Earth
- READ MORE: What would happen if you fell in a black hole?
With their ability to gobble up entire planets, black holes must be the most feared objects in the universe.
Unfortunately, scientists in France have found another one in our galaxy – and they warn that it is 'extremely' close to us, astronomically speaking.
Called Gaia BH3, it is 2,000 light-years away from Earth – or 11,000,000,000,000,000 miles – in the constellation Aquila.
This makes it the second-closest known black hole to Earth, after Gaia BH1, which is about 1,500 light-years away.
If this sounds worrying, Dr Pasquale Panuzzo, an astronomer at the Paris Observatory, assures us 'there is no reason to be scared'.
Famously an inspiration for sci-fi movies, black holes are regions of spacetime where gravity's pull is so strong that even light can not get out. They act as intense sources of gravity that hoover up surrounding matter like dust and gas, as well as planets and even other black holes
READ MORE What would happen if you fell in a black hole?
Here's five gruesome deaths due to various astronomical phenomena
'The black hole is close to us, on the scale of our galaxy,' he told MailOnline.
'But it is still 2000 light years away, 500 times further than Proxima Centaury (the closest star), and will never come much closer in the future.'
Black hole Gaia BH3 resides not in a solar system of its own, but in a 'binary system', comprising the black hole and a star, which is quite rare.
Interestingly, the star orbits the black hole, and this gives the star an odd 'wobbling' motion in its orbit.
The wobbling was measured over several years with the European Space Agency's Gaia space telescope, stationed around 930,000 miles (1.5 million km) from Earth.
Additional data from other telescopes, including ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile, confirmed that the mass of this black hole is 33 times that of our sun.
Dr Panuzzo and colleagues say Gaia BH3 is a 'stellar black hole', so it's on the lowest classification when it comes to measuring the mass of black holes.
However, Gaia BH3 is still the second-largest black hole in our galaxy, the Milky Way.
This black hole was spotted in data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission because it imposes an odd ‘wobbling’ motion on the companion star orbiting it. Pictured is the star (blue) orbiting the black hole (red)
The European Space Agency's Gaia space telescope (depicted here in space) is around 930,000 miles (1.5 million km) away from Earth
Pictured, instruments that form the Very Large Telescope in the remote, sparsely populated Atacama Desert in northern Chile
The largest black hole in the Milky Way is Sagittarius A*, at the galaxy's centre, which has a solar mass of around 4 million – and is spinning so fast it's taken on the shape of a football.
However, Sagittarius A* is 26,670 light years away from Earth, so 13 times the distance of Gaia BH3.
The question of how exactly the newly-found binary system came to be – namely with a star orbiting a black hole – will be the subject of future study.
However, Dr Panuzzo – who is the main author of a study about the findings published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics – has some theories.
'The classic scenario would be that the system was composed by a massive star (that collapsed and formed the black hole) and a low mass star (the one that we see today),' he told MailOnline.
'Another scenario is that the low mass companion star was captured by the black hole after its birth.
'We have several hints that point toward this latter scenario as more probable.'
This image compares the new find with two smaller black holes in our galaxy. Gaia BH1 is the closest black hole to us but it is only 10 times the mass of our sun (10 solar masses). Meanwhile, Cygnus X-1 is twice as large as this, at 21 solar masses. Gaia BH3 is a hefty 33 solar masses, but it is still completely dwarfed by Sagittarius A*, the largest black hole in our galaxy (around 4 million solar masses)
Before now, the second-closest known black hole to Earth was Gaia BH2. Now we know that Gaia BH1 is the closest black hole to us, followed by Gaia BH3 (the new discovery) and then Gaia BH2
Famously an inspiration for sci-fi movies like 'Event Horizon', black holes are regions of spacetime where gravity's pull is so strong that even light can not get out.
They act as intense sources of gravity that hoover up surrounding matter like dust and gas, as well as planets and even other black holes.
Earlier this year another team of scientists revealed the brightest and hungriest black hole ever detected.
Called J0529-4351, it has a mass roughly 17 billion times that of our solar system's sun and consumes a star a day.
Due to their immense gravitational pull, black holes grow in mass by capturing nearby material, whether it's stars, planets and even other black holes.
Another team recently revealed an incredible map of 1.3 million supermassive black holes living at the centres of other galaxies in the universe.
FIVE BLACK HOLE THEORIES THAT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND
Black holes are among the most fascinating and fiercely debated objects in the universe.
They have captured the public's imagination for decades, partly thanks to the late Stephen Hawking, who transformed them from a difficult-to-understand scientific theory to a source of mysterious wonder.
Mysterious: Black holes are among the most fascinating and fiercely debated objects in the universe (stock image)
They have also percolated popular culture through sci-fi magazines, Star Trek and Hollywood blockbusters.
But what are the five most bizarre and captivating theories about black holes that are so unfathomable the mind boggles?
Here MailOnline takes a look.
