‘Stealthy giant’: A massive Black Hole has been hiding right besides us
Produced by: Manoj Kumar
Cosmic Neighbor
Astronomers just found the closest supermassive black hole outside the Milky Way—hiding in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Hypervelocity Clues
Ultra-fast stars escaping the Milky Way led scientists to this black hole, tracing their origins like forensic experts analyzing bullet trajectories.
Gaia’s Breakthrough
The European Space Agency’s Gaia mission provided ultra-precise star data, helping researchers pinpoint the black hole’s influence.
Monster Mass
This newfound black hole is 600,000 times the mass of our Sun—small compared to the Milky Way’s, but still an undeniable giant.
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Galactic Slingshot
Hypervelocity stars form when a double-star system gets too close to a black hole—one star is captured, the other is flung away at millions of miles per hour.
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Predictive Power
Scientists predicted a cluster of hypervelocity stars in one part of the sky—exactly where they found them, proving the black hole’s existence.
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Stealthy Giant
This black hole was “hiding in plain sight,” undetected until now, showing just how elusive these cosmic monsters can be.
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Not Alone
The Milky Way isn’t the only galaxy ejecting stars—our galactic neighbor’s supermassive black hole has been doing the same all along.
One of Many?
If this black hole went unnoticed for so long, how many more are lurking nearby? The hunt for hidden supermassive black holes has just begun.