“There appears to be a theoretical maximum to the mass of a neutron star at up to 3 solar masses,” Jayasinghe, who recently led a study published in Astrobiology, told SYFY WIRE. “So the Unicorn is truly one of the smallest black holes possible. Finding these systems will help scientists understand the formation mechanisms of black holes and neutron stars.” The Unicorn is a mass gap compact object some 1,500 light years from Earth. Rare and not well understood, these are cosmic objects that are by no means small to human eyes. The heaviest neutron star that has been found so far is 2.5 solar masses, while the Unicorn is among the smallest known black holes at 3 solar masses. The few that have been detected are all around 5 solar masses. Whether anything exists in that “mass gap” between the heaviest neutron star and the lightest black holes are what scientists were trying to find out, and the Unicorn fits in.