This list of

black hole A black hole is a massive, compact astronomical object so dense that its gravity prevents anything from escaping, even light. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will form a black hole. Th ...

s (and

star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...

s considered probable candidates) is organized by mass (including black holes of undetermined mass); some items in this list are

galaxies A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar Sys ...

star cluster A star cluster is a group of stars held together by self-gravitation. Two main types of star clusters can be distinguished: globular clusters, tight groups of ten thousand to millions of old stars which are gravitationally bound; and open cluster ...

s that are believed to be organized around a black hole.

Messier Messier may refer to: People with the surname *Ashley Messier (born 2002), Canadian ice hockey player *Charles Messier (1730–1817), French astronomer * Doug Messier (born 1936), Canadian ice hockey player and coach * Éric Messier (born 1973), Ca ...

and

New General Catalogue The ''New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars'' (abbreviated NGC) is an astronomical catalogue of deep-sky objects compiled by John Louis Emil Dreyer in 1888. The NGC contains 7,840 objects, including galaxy, galaxies, star cluste ...

designations are given where possible.

Supermassive black holes and candidates

* 1ES 2344+514 * Ton 618 (this

quasar A quasar ( ) is an extremely Luminosity, luminous active galactic nucleus (AGN). It is sometimes known as a quasi-stellar object, abbreviated QSO. The emission from an AGN is powered by accretion onto a supermassive black hole with a mass rangi ...

has possibly the biggest black hole ever found, estimated at 66 billion solar masses) * 3C 371 *

4C +37.11 4C +37.11 or Galaxy 0402+379 is a radio galaxy and elliptical galaxy featuring binary supermassive black holes with the least separation of any directly observed binaries, as of 2006. The separation between the two is 24 light-years or 7.3 parse ...

(this

radio galaxy A radio galaxy is a galaxy with giant regions of radio emission extending well beyond its visible structure. These energetic radio lobes are powered by jets from its active galactic nucleus. They have luminosities up to 1039 W at radio wav ...

is believed to have binary

supermassive black hole A supermassive black hole (SMBH or sometimes SBH) is the largest type of black hole, with its mass being on the order of hundreds of thousands, or millions to billions, of times the mass of the Sun (). Black holes are a class of astronomical ...

s) * AP Lib *

S5 0014+81 S5 0014+81 is a distant, compact, hyperluminous, Spectral line, broad-absorption-line quasar, or blazar, located near the high declination region of the constellation Cepheus (constellation), Cepheus, near the North Equatorial Pole. Characteri ...

(said to be a compact hyperluminous quasar, estimated at 40 billion

solar mass The solar mass () is a frequently used unit of mass in astronomy, equal to approximately . It is approximately equal to the mass of the Sun. It is often used to indicate the masses of other stars, as well as stellar clusters, nebulae, galaxie ...

es) 17:53:24 GMT. *

APM 08279+5255 APM, apm, or Apm may refer to: Technology Computer technology *Active policy management, a discipline within enterprise software *Advanced Power Management, a legacy technology in personal computers *Apple Partition Map, computer disk partitio ...

(contains one of the largest black holes, estimated at 10-23 billion

es; previous candidate for largest) *

Arp 220 Arp 220 is the result of a collision between two galaxies which are now in the process of merging. It is the 220th object in Halton Arp's '' Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies''. Features Arp 220 is the closest ultraluminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) ...

Centaurus A Centaurus A (also known as NGC 5128 or Caldwell 77) is a galaxy in the constellation of Centaurus. It was discovered in 1826 by Scottish astronomer James Dunlop from his home in Parramatta, in New South Wales, Australia. There is considerable ...

* Fornax A *

HE0450-2958 HE0450-2958 is an unusual quasar. It has been called the "naked quasar" and the "quasar without a home" because it appears to lack a host galaxy. It is estimated to lie approximately one billion parsecs away. History A team of researchers led b ...

IC 1459 IC 1459 (also catalogued as ''IC 5265'') is an elliptical galaxy located in the constellation Grus. It is located at a distance of circa 85 million light-years from Earth, which, given its apparent dimensions, means that IC 1459 is about 130,000 ...

Messier 31 Messier may refer to: People with the surname *Ashley Messier (born 2002), Canadian ice hockey player *Charles Messier (1730–1817), French astronomer *Doug Messier (born 1936), Canadian ice hockey player and coach *Éric Messier (born 1973), Cana ...

(or the

Andromeda Galaxy The Andromeda Galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy and is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way. It was originally named the Andromeda Nebula and is cataloged as Messier 31, M31, and NGC 224. Andromeda has a Galaxy#Isophotal diameter, D25 isop ...

) *

Messier 32 Messier 32 (also known as M32 and NGC 221) is a dwarf "early-type" galaxy about from the Solar System, appearing in the constellation Andromeda (constellation), Andromeda. M32 is a satellite galaxy of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and was discover ...

Messier 51 Messier may refer to: People with the surname *Ashley Messier (born 2002), Canadian ice hockey player *Charles Messier (1730–1817), French astronomer * Doug Messier (born 1936), Canadian ice hockey player and coach * Éric Messier (born 1973), Ca ...

(or the

Whirlpool Galaxy The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51a (M51a) or NGC 5194, is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy with a Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus. It lies in the constellation Canes Venatici, and was the first galaxy to be classifie ...

) *

Messier 60 Messier 60 or M60, also known as NGC 4649, is an elliptical galaxy approximately 57 million light-years away in the equatorial constellation of Virgo. Together with NGC 4647, it forms a pair known as Arp 116. Messier 60 and nearby ellipti ...

Messier 77 Messier 77 (M77), also known as NGC 1068 or the Squid Galaxy, is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Cetus. It is about away from Earth, and was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1780, who originally described it as a nebula. Méchain ...

Messier 81 Messier 81 (also known as NGC 3031 or Bode's Galaxy) is a grand design spiral galaxy about 1 E22 m, 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. It has a Galaxy#Isophotal diameter, D25 isophotal diameter of . Because of its rela ...

(or

Bode's Galaxy Messier 81 (also known as NGC 3031 or Bode's Galaxy) is a grand design spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. It has a D25 isophotal diameter of . Because of its relative proximity to the Milky Way g ...

) * Messier 84 *

Messier 87 Messier 87 (also known as Virgo A or NGC 4486, generally abbreviated to M87) is a Type-cD galaxy, supergiant elliptical galaxy, elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo (constellation), Virgo that contains several trillion s ...

(or Virgo A) * Messier 104 (or the

Sombrero Galaxy The Sombrero Galaxy (also known as Messier Object 104, M104 or NGC 4594) is a peculiar galaxy of unclear classification in the constellation borders of Virgo and Corvus, being about from the Milky Way galaxy. It is a member of the Virgo II Gr ...

) *

Messier 105 Messier 105 or M105, also known as NGC 3379, is an elliptical galaxy 36.6 million light-years away in the equatorial constellation of Leo. It is the biggest elliptical galaxy in the Messier catalogue that is not in the Virgo cluster. It w ...

Messier 106 Messier 106 (also known as NGC 4258) is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781. M106 is at a distance of about 22 to 25 million light-years away from Earth. M106 contains an ...

* Quiescent (Galaxy) (Black Hole at the center of the Andromeda Galaxy) * Mrk 421 * Mrk 501 * NGC 821 * NGC 1023 *

NGC 1097 NGC 1097 (also known as Caldwell 67) is a barred spiral galaxy about 1 E22 m, 45 million Distance measures (cosmology), light years away in the constellation Fornax. It was discovered by William Herschel on 9 October 1790. It is a severely inte ...

* NGC 1271 * NGC 1277 * NGC 1332 * NGC 1566 *

NGC 2787 NGC 2787 is a barred lenticular galaxy approximately 24 million light-years away in the northern constellation of Ursa Major. It was discovered on December 3, 1788 by German-born astronomer William Herschel. J. L. E. Dreyer described it as ...

* NGC 3079 *

NGC 3115 NGC 3115 (also called the Spindle Galaxy or Caldwell 53) is a field lenticular (S0) galaxy in the constellation Sextans. The galaxy was discovered by William Herschel on February 22, 1787. At about 32 million light-years away from Earth, it ...

NGC 3377 NGC 3377 is an elliptical galaxy in the constellation Leo. It is a member of the M96 Group and is about 26 Mly away, with a diameter of approximately 40 000 ly. The supermassive black hole A supermassive black hole (SMBH or sometimes SBH) ...

NGC 3384 NGC 3384 is an elliptical galaxy in the constellation Leo. The galaxy was discovered by William Herschel in 1784 as part of the Herschel 400 Catalogue. The high age of the stars in the central region of NGC 3384 was confirmed after analysis of t ...

* NGC 3998 *

NGC 4151 NGC 4151 is an intermediate spiral galaxy, intermediate spiral Seyfert galaxy with weak inner ring structure located from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici. The galaxy was first mentioned by William Herschel on March 17, 1787; it was on ...

* NGC 4261 * NGC 4438 * NGC 4459 * NGC 4473 * NGC 4486B (a satellite galaxy of

) * NGC 4564 * NGC 4579 * NGC 4596 *

NGC 4697 NGC 4697 (also known as Caldwell 52) is an elliptical galaxy some 40 to 50 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. It is a member of the NGC 4697 Group, a group of galaxies also containing NGC 4731 and several generally much smaller ...

* NGC 4889 * NGC 4945 * NGC 5033 * NGC 6251 * NGC 7052 * NGC 7314 * PKS 0521-365 * Q0906+6930 (a

blazar A blazar is an active galactic nucleus (AGN) with a relativistic jet (a jet composed of ionized matter traveling at nearly the speed of light) directed very nearly towards an observer. Relativistic beaming of electromagnetic radiation from the ...

organized around a supermassive black hole) * RX J1131 (first black hole whose spin was directly measured) *

Sagittarius A* Sagittarius A*, abbreviated as Sgr A* ( ), is the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center of the Milky Way. Viewed from Earth, it is located near the border of the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius, about 5.6° south o ...

, which is in the center of the

Milky Way The Milky Way or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the #Appearance, galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galax ...

Types

Quasar A quasar ( ) is an extremely Luminosity, luminous active galactic nucleus (AGN). It is sometimes known as a quasi-stellar object, abbreviated QSO. The emission from an AGN is powered by accretion onto a supermassive black hole with a mass rangi ...

Supermassive black hole A supermassive black hole (SMBH or sometimes SBH) is the largest type of black hole, with its mass being on the order of hundreds of thousands, or millions to billions, of times the mass of the Sun (). Black holes are a class of astronomical ...

Hypercompact stellar system A hypercompact stellar system (HCSS) is a dense cluster of stars around a supermassive black hole that has been ejected from the center of its host galaxy. Stars that are close to the black hole at the time of the ejection will remain bound to the ...

(hypothetical object organized around a supermassive black hole)

Intermediate-mass black holes and candidates

* Cigar Galaxy (Messier 82, NGC 3034) * GCIRS 13E * HLX-1 *

M82 X-1 M82 X-1 is an ultra-luminous X-ray source located in the galaxy M82. It is a candidate intermediate-mass black hole, with the exact mass estimate varying from around 100 to 1000 solar masses. One of the most luminous ULXs ever known, its luminos ...

Messier 15 Messier 15 or M15 (also designated NGC 7078 and sometimes known as the Great Pegasus Cluster) is a globular cluster in the constellation Pegasus (constellation), Pegasus. It was discovered by Jean-Dominique Maraldi in 1746 and included in Charles ...

( NGC 7078) *

Messier 110 Messier 110, or M110, also known as NGC 205, is a dwarf elliptical galaxy that is a satellite of the Andromeda Galaxy in the Local Group. Early observational history Charles Messier never included the galaxy in his list, but it was depicte ...

( NGC 205) *

Sculptor Galaxy The Sculptor Galaxy (also known as the Silver Coin Galaxy, Silver Dollar Galaxy, NGC 253, or Caldwell 65) is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor. The Sculptor Galaxy is a starburst galaxy, which means that it is currentl ...

(

NGC 253 The Sculptor Galaxy (also known as the Silver Coin Galaxy, Silver Dollar Galaxy, NGC 253, or Caldwell 65) is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor. The Sculptor Galaxy is a starburst galaxy, which means that it is currently ...

) *

Triangulum Galaxy The Triangulum Galaxy is a spiral galaxy 2.73 million light-years (ly) from Earth in the constellation Triangulum. It is catalogued as Messier 33 or NGC 598. With the D25 isophotal diameter of , the Triangulum Galaxy is the third-largest me ...

(

Messier 33 Messier may refer to: People with the surname *Ashley Messier (born 2002), Canadian ice hockey player *Charles Messier (1730–1817), French astronomer * Doug Messier (born 1936), Canadian ice hockey player and coach * Éric Messier (born 1973), Ca ...

, NGC 598)

Stellar black holes and candidates

* 1E1740.7-2942 (

Great Annihilator 1E1740.7-2942, or the Great Annihilator, is a Milky Way microquasar, located near the Galactic Center on the sky. It likely consists of a black hole and a companion star. It is one of the brightest X-ray sources in the region around the Ga ...

), 340 ly from

Sgr A* Sagittarius A*, abbreviated as Sgr A* ( ), is the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center of the Milky Way. Viewed from Earth, it is located near the border of the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius, about 5.6° south of ...

* 4U 1543-475/ IL Lupi * A0620-00/V616 Mon (once thought to be the closest to

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

known, at about 3,000

light years A light-year, alternatively spelled light year (ly or lyr), is a unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equal to exactly , which is approximately 9.46 trillion km or 5.88 trillion mi. As defined by the International Astro ...

) * CXOU J132527.6-430023 (a candidate stellar mass black hole outside of the

Local Group The Local Group is the galaxy group that includes the Milky Way, where Earth is located. It has a total diameter of roughly , and a total mass of the order of . It consists of two collections of galaxies in a " dumbbell" shape; the Milky Way ...

) *

Cygnus X-1 Cygnus X-1 (abbreviated Cyg X-1) is a galactic X-ray source in the constellation Cygnus and was the first such source widely accepted to be a black hole. It was discovered in 1964 during a rocket flight and is one of the ...

Cygnus X-3 Cygnus X-3 is a high-mass X-ray binary ( HMXB), one of the stronger binary X-ray sources in the sky. It is often considered to be a microquasar, and it is believed to be a compact object in a binary system which is pulling in a stre ...

GRO J0422+32 GRO or Gro may refer to: Organisations * General Register Office * General Register Office (Northern Ireland) Technology and science * Generic receive offload, in computer networking * GRO structure file format, used by GROMACS Transportation * G ...

(possibly the smallest black hole yet discovered) * GRO J1655-40/ V1033 Sco (at one time considered the smallest black hole known) * GRS 1124-683/ GU Mus *

GRS 1915+105 GRS 1915+105 or V1487 Aquilae is an X-ray binary star system containing a main sequence star and a black hole. Transfer of material from the star to the black hole generates a relativistic jet, making this a microquasar system. The jet ex ...

/ V1487 Aql *

GS 2000+25 GS may stand for: Businesses and organizations * Goldman Sachs, one of the world's largest global investment banks * Global Star Software, a former Canadian video game publisher * GS (Swedish union), a trade union in Sweden * GS Group, a Korean ...

/ QZ Vul * GX 339-4/ V821 Ara *

IGR J17091-3624 IGR J17091-3624 (also IGR J17091) is a stellar mass black hole 28,000 light-years away. It lies in the constellation Scorpius in the Milky Way galaxy. Discovery IGR J17091 was discovered by ESA's INTEGRAL satellite in April 2003. Descri ...

(candidate smallest known stellar black hole) * M33 X-7 (stellar black hole with the most massive stellar companion, located in the Triangulum Galaxy) * MOA-2011-BLG-191/OGLE-2011-BLG-0462 (first known isolated stellar black hole) * SN 1997D (in NGC 1536) *

SS 433 SS 433 is a microquasar or eclipsing X-ray binary system, consisting of a stellar-mass black hole accreting matter from an A-type companion star. SS 433 is the first discovered microquasar. It is at the centre of the supernova remnant ...

* V404 Cyg *

V Puppis V Puppis (V Pup) is a star system in the constellation Puppis. Its apparent magnitude is 4.41. There is a binary star system at the center with a B1 dwarf orbiting a B3 subgiant star. They have an orbital period of 1.45 days and a d ...

* XTE J1118+480/ KV UMa * XTE J1550-564/ V381 Nor * XTE J1650-500 (at one time considered the smallest black hole known) * XTE J1819-254/ V4641 Sgr * LMC X-1 (first X-ray source in the

Large Magellanic Cloud The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is a dwarf galaxy and satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. At a distance of around , the LMC is the second- or third-closest galaxy to the Milky Way, after the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy, Sagittarius Dwarf ...

)

Black holes detected by gravitational wave signals

, 10 mergers of binary black holes have been observed. In each case two black holes merged to a larger black hole. In addition, one

neutron star A neutron star is the gravitationally collapsed Stellar core, core of a massive supergiant star. It results from the supernova explosion of a stellar evolution#Massive star, massive star—combined with gravitational collapse—that compresses ...

merger has been observed (

GW170817 GW170817 was a gravitational wave (GW) observed by the LIGO and Virgo detectors on 17 August 2017, originating within the shell elliptical galaxy NGC 4993, about 144 million light years away. The wave was produced by the last moments of the in ...

), forming a black hole. In addition, over 30 alerts have been issued since April 2019, of black hole merger candidates. * GW 150914

Multiple black hole systems

Binary black holes

* EGSD2 J142033.66 525917.5 core black holes — galaxy hosting a dual AGN *

OJ 287 OJ 287 is a BL Lac object 4 billion light-years from Earth that has produced quasi-periodic optical outbursts going back approximately 120 years, as first apparent on photographic plates from 1891. Seen on photographic plates since at least 188 ...

core black holes — a

BL Lac object A BL Lacertae object or BL Lac object is a type of active galactic nucleus (AGN) or a galaxy with such an AGN, named after its prototype, BL Lacertae. In contrast to other types of active galactic nuclei, BL Lacs are characterized by rapid and l ...

with a candidate binary supermassive black hole core system * PG 1302-102 – the first binary-cored quasar — a pair of supermassive black holes at the core of this quasar * SDSS J120136.02+300305.5 core black holes — a pair of supermassive black holes at the centre of this galaxy In addition, the signal of several binary black holes merging into a single black hole and in so doing producing

gravitational wave Gravitational waves are oscillations of the gravitational field that Wave propagation, travel through space at the speed of light; they are generated by the relative motion of gravity, gravitating masses. They were proposed by Oliver Heaviside i ...

s have been observed by the

LIGO The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is a large-scale physics experiment and observatory designed to detect cosmic gravitational waves and to develop gravitational-wave observations as an astronomical tool. Prior to LIG ...

instrument. These are listed above in the section Black holes detected by gravitational wave signals.

Trinary black holes

As of 2014, there are 5 triple black hole systems known. * SDSS J150243.09+111557.3 (SDSS J1502+1115) core black holes — the three components are distant tertiary J1502P, and the close binary pair J1502S composed of J1502SE and J1502SW * GOODS J123652.77+621354.7 core black holes of triple-clump galaxy * 2MASX J10270057+1749001 (SDSS J1027+1749) core black holes

References

External links

NASA's general description of black holes.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Black holes * black holes, list of Theory of relativity