Sky position and distance
Gaia BH2 is placed at J2000 RA 13.8 h, Dec -59.2° at 3,800 light-years.
EpochJ2000
Space Time
Black hole · evidence and sources
Gaia BH2
Second closest known stellar-mass black hole. Discovered 2023.
Catalog
Position basis, the same label the app shows on the selection card.
Every aspect, with its origin
One record per aspect. The origin says what kind of thing each value is; the source says where it came from; the limit says what it cannot tell you.
ObservedCatalogComputedReconstructedIllustrativeUndocumented
Companion orbit
The visible companion orbits with a period of 1,277 days and a semi-major axis of 5 AU (e = 0.52).
LimitThe black hole itself is drawn as a schematic marker; it has no resolved image.
Description and facts
The short description and the fact list are written by the Space Time authors for orientation. They are not quoted from a catalog field and carry no citation of their own.
SourceSpace Time editorial text
LimitBackground reading is linked under Further reading; it is not the source of the displayed numbers.
What is not measured
Nothing on this page is a reconstruction or a schematic; every record above is observed, catalogued or computed.
Not yet documented
- Physical data: no record. Space Time does not claim a source for this aspect.
- Appearance: no record. Space Time does not claim a source for this aspect.
- Description: Background reading is linked under Further reading; it is not the source of the displayed numbers.
Sources cited
- El-Badry et al. (2023), MNRAS
- Space Time editorial text
Further reading
Wikipedia: Gaia BH2 (background only; not the source of the displayed numbers)