Gaia's discovery: A new family of black holes

The European Space Agency's Gaia mission has discovered a new family of black holes, including the closest and second closest black holes to Earth. The black holes were discovered by studying the orbits of stars tracked by Gaia, which wobbled on the sky, indicating they were gravitationally influenced by massive objects. The new black holes are truly black and can only be detected by their gravitational effects, making them practically invisible. The discovery suggests that black holes in wider binaries are more common than previously thought, and Gaia's next data release in 2025 is expected to contain many more of these stars with mystery black hole companions.