Gaia's black holes: comparison of orbits

On 16 April, the Gaia Collaboration announced the discovery of Gaia Black Hole 3 or Gaia BH3. Find more details here: www.cosmos.esa... .
This animation gives a comparison of the orbits of Gaia’s black holes and their companion stars. To give insight in the size of the orbit, the orbits of the Gaia BH3 system are projected onto the Solar System, with the Sun in the zero point. Gaia’s black holes are dormant black holes detected due to the wobble seen in the position and motion of its companion star.
It can be clearly seen that the star orbiting Gaia BH3 is in a wide orbit around their mutual centre of mass. These wider orbits are more easily distinguishable with longer periods of observations. The orbital period of 11.6 years is about twice the period of observations that form the base for Gaia Data Release 4 (which will be based on 5,5 years of data).
Gaia BH1 was detected in 2022 following Gaia’s Data Release 3, a catalogue based on 34 months of Gaia data. It is the closest black hole to Earth at approximately 1560 light years away. Find more details here: www.cosmos.esa...
Gaia BH2 was detected in 2023, also using Gaia’s data release 3. At the time of its discovery, it was the second closest black hole to Earth at approximately 3800 light years away. Find more details here: www.esa.int/Sc...
Gaia BH3 was detected during the validation of Gaia’s preliminary data while preparing Gaia Data Release 4, a catalogue that will be based on 66 months of Gaia data. The paper discussing the finding is published on 16th April as forthcoming article in A&A. Gaia BH3 is located at approximately 2000 light years away, which makes it the second closest black hole known today.
Credits: ESA/Gaia/DPAC
License: CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Acknowledgements: P. Panuzzo CNRS/Observatoire de Paris/PSL