Zooming into the BH3 black hole system

This video zooms into BH3, the most massive stellar black hole discovered so far in our galaxy. The black hole was detected thanks to the wobbling it induces on a companion star, seen here as a bright point at the centre of the frame towards the end of the zoom. An inset at the end of the video shows an artist’s animation of what the orbits of BH (in red) and its companion star (in blue) around their common centre of mass look like.

The various images shown here were taken with different telescopes at different times, and have been blended together to create this zoom. The final animation is an artistic creation.

For more details, check: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2408/

Credit: ESO/L. Calçada, N. Risinger (skysurvey.org), DSS. Music: Martin Stuertzer