J/A+A/695/L1ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/695/L1doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.36959001CDSKervella P.Panuzzo P.Gallenne A.Merand A.Arenou F.Caffau E.,Lacour S.Mazeh T.Holl B.Babusiaux C.Nardetto N.Clavel M.,Le Bouquin J.-B.Segransan D.2025-05-21T20:03:00Z2025-02-25T10:35:07ZCDS support team

CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France

cds-question@unistra.frmultiple-starspopulation-ii-starsinterferometryThe recent astrometric discovery of the nearby (590pc), massive (33M_{sun}_) dormant black hole candidate Gaia BH3 offers the possibility to resolve angularly the black hole from its companion star using optical interferometry. We aim at detecting emission in the near-infrared K band from the close-in environment of Gaia BH3 caused by accretion. Gaia BH3 (LS II +14 13) has been observed using the GRAVITY instrument with the four 8-m Unit Telescopes of the VLT Interferometer. We searched for the signature of emission of Gaia BH3 in the interferometric observables using the CANDID, PMOIRED and exoGravity tools. With a separation of 18mas, the Gaia BH3 system is well resolvable angularly by GRAVITY. We did not detect emission from the black hole at a contrast level of {Delta}m=6.8mag with respect to the companion star, that is, f_BH_/f_star_<0.2%. This corresponds to an upper limit on the continuum flux density of f_BH_<1.9*10^-16^W/m^2^/micron in the K band. We also did not detect emission from the black hole in the hydrogen BrGamma line. The non-detection of near-infrared emission from the black hole in Gaia BH3 indicates that its accretion of the giant star wind is presently occurring at most at a very low rate. This is consistent with the limit of f_Edd_<4.9*10^-7^ derived previously on the Eddington ratio for an advection-dominated accretion flow. Deeper observations with GRAVITY may be able to detect the black hole as the companion star approaches periastron around year 2030.2025A&A...695L...1Khttps://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/695/L1CatalogResearchIsServedByTAP VizieR generic serviceIsServedByConesearch servicehttps://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.htmlhttps://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/695/L1https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/695/L1http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/695/L1https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/A+A/695/L1https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/A+A/695/L1http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/A+A/695/L1GETtext/xml+votablehttps://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tapCone search capability for table J/A+A/695/L1/list (List of Gaia BH3 OIFITS2 data files)https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/695/L1/list?https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/695/L1/list?http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/695/L1/list?GETtext/xml+votable180.050000true294.8279614.931570.0055555555555555566/30684https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/moc/J/A+A/695/L1?format=asciidefaultJ/A+A/695/L1/listList of Gaia BH3 OIFITS2 data filesrecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintRAJ2000Right Ascension of center (J2000)degpos.eq.ra;meta.mainDEJ2000Declination of center (J2000)degpos.eq.dec;meta.mainObs.dateObservation datestime.epoch;obsnullablesizeSize of FITS fileMbytephys.size;meta.fitsfloatFileNameName of FITS file, in subdirectory fitsmeta.id;meta.fitscharTitleTitle of the FITS filemeta.title;meta.fitschar