Until recently, there were only ten known stars on trajectories that will allow them to escape the Milky Way galaxy, thrown astray by powerful supernova explosions. A new study using data from ESA s Gaia survey this June has revealed an additional six runaways, two of which break the record for the fastest radial velocity of any runaway star ever seen: 1,694 km/s and 2,285 km/s.
The black holes, Gaia BH1 and Gaia BH2, are respectively located just 1,560 light-years away from us in the direction of the constellation Ophiuchus and 3,800 light-years away in the constellation Centaurus.