Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have discovered the closest massive black hole to Earth, described as a “frozen in time” cosmic titan.

This intermediate-mass black hole, with a mass of about 8,200 suns, may help bridge the gap between stellar-mass and supermassive black holes.

It is significantly more massive than stellar-mass black holes (which range from 5 to 100 solar masses) but much less than supermassive black holes that can have masses in the millions or billions of suns, Space.com has reported.

Located in the star cluster Omega Centauri, approximately 18,000 light-years from Earth, this black hole provides valuable insights into black hole formation and evolution.

Written by B.C. Begley