This list of black holes (and stars considered probable candidates) is organized by mass (including black holes of undetermined mass); some items in this list are galaxies or star clusters that are believed to be organized around a black hole. Messier and New General Catalogue designations are given where possible.

Supermassive black holes and candidates

* 1ES 2344+514 * Ton 618 (this quasar has possibly the biggest black hole ever found, estimated at 66 billion solar masses) * 3C 371 * 4C +37.11 (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 ob ...

s) * AP Lib * S5 0014+81 (said to be a compact hyperluminous quasar, estimated at 40 billion solar masses) 17:53:24 GMT. * APM 08279+5255 (contains one of the largest black holes, estimated at 10-23 billion solar masses; previous candidate for largest) * Arp 220 *

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 d ...

* Fornax A * HE0450-2958 * IC 1459 *

Messier 31 Messier may refer to: People with the surname *Charles Messier, French astronomer *Éric Messier, former NHL defenseman *George Messier, French inventor *Jean-Marie Messier, former CEO of Vivendi Universal * Marc Messier, Canadian actor from Quebec ...

(or the

Andromeda Galaxy The Andromeda Galaxy (IPA: ), also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224 and originally the Andromeda Nebula, is a barred spiral galaxy with the diameter of about approximately from Earth and the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way. The gal ...

) * Messier 32 *

Messier 51 Messier may refer to: People with the surname *Charles Messier, French astronomer *Éric Messier, former NHL defenseman *George Messier, French inventor *Jean-Marie Messier, former CEO of Vivendi Universal * Marc Messier, Canadian actor from Quebec ...

(or the

Whirlpool Galaxy The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51a, M51a, and 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 81 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 ...

(or Bode's Galaxy) * Messier 84 *

Messier 87 Messier 87 (also known as Virgo A or NGC 4486, generally abbreviated to M87) is a supergiant elliptical galaxy with several trillion stars in the constellation Virgo. One of the largest and most massive galaxies in the local ...

(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 Grou ...

) *

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 * Mrk 421 * Mrk 501 * NGC 821 * NGC 1023 * NGC 1097 * NGC 1271 * NGC 1277 * NGC 1332 *

NGC 1566 NGC 1566, sometimes known as the Spanish Dancer, is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Dorado, positioned about 3.5° to the south of the star Gamma Doradus. It was discovered on May 28, 1826 by Scottish astronomer James Dunlop. ...

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 a ...

* NGC 3079 * NGC 3115 *

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) i ...

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 ...

* NGC 3998 *

NGC 4151 NGC 4151 is an 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 one of the six Seyfert galax ...

NGC 4261 NGC 4261 is an elliptical galaxy located around 100 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. It was discovered April 13, 1784 by the German-born astronomer William Herschel. The galaxy is a member of its own somewhat meager galaxy gro ...

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

) * NGC 4564 * NGC 4579 * NGC 4596 * NGC 4697 *

NGC 4889 NGC 4889 (also known as Caldwell 35) is an E4 supergiant elliptical galaxy. It was discovered in 1785 by the British astronomer Frederick William Herschel I, who catalogued it as a bright, nebulous patch. The brightest galaxy within the northern ...

* NGC 4945 *

NGC 5033 NGC 5033 is an inclined spiral galaxy located in the constellation Canes Venatici. Distance estimates vary from between 38 and 60 million light years from the Milky Way. The galaxy has a very bright nucleus and a relatively faint disk. Signifi ...

* 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 Sgr A* ( ), is the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center of the Milky Way. It is located near the border of the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius, about 5.6° south of the ecliptic, ...

, which is in the center of the

Milky Way The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. ...

Types

* Quasar *

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 ob ...

* Hypercompact stellar system (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 *

Messier 15 Messier 15 or M15 (also designated NGC 7078) is a globular cluster in the constellation Pegasus. It was discovered by Jean-Dominique Maraldi in 1746 and included in Charles Messier's catalogue of comet-like objects in 1764. At an estimated 12.5 ...

( 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, 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 underg ...

( NGC 253) * Triangulum Galaxy ( Messier 33, NGC 598)

Stellar black holes and candidates

* 1E1740.7-2942 ( Great Annihilator), 340 ly from Sgr A* * 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 harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

known, at about 3,000

light years A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...

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

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 strea ...

* GRO J0422+32 (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/ V1487 Aql * GS 2000+25/ QZ Vul * GX 339-4/ V821 Ara * IGR J17091-3624 (candidate smallest known stellar black hole) * LB-1 (name of both a galactic B-type star and a very closely associated over-massive

stellar-mass black hole A stellar black hole (or stellar-mass black hole) is a black hole formed by the gravitational collapse of a star. They have masses ranging from about 5 to several tens of solar masses. The process is observed as a hypernova explosion or as a g ...

) * M33 X-7 (most massive

known, not counting GW black holes) * MOA-2011-BLG-191/OGLE-2011-BLG-0462 (first known isolated stellar black hole) * SN 1997D (in NGC 1536) * SS 433 * V404 Cyg * V Puppis * 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

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 collapsed core of a massive supergiant star, which had a total mass of between 10 and 25 solar masses, possibly more if the star was especially metal-rich. Except for black holes and some hypothetical objects (e.g. w ...

merger has been observed ( GW170817), forming a black hole. In addition, over 30 alerts have been issued since April 2019, of black hole merger candidates.

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 3.5 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 18 ...

core black holes — a BL Lac object 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 waves 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. Two large ...

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.

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