<p>As far as I know, the closest (object reasonably believed to be a) black hole to Earth is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_BH1" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Gaia BH1</a> at ~1560 ly. But presumably most black holes are hard to detect and there are undiscovered black holes closer. Knowing what we know about the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_mass_function" rel="nofollow noreferrer">IMF</a> and stellar evolution, how close can we reasonably expect to be to some black hole?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-08T22:38:47.217Z
The duplicate gives the answer 18 parsecs or about 60 light years.
James K
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-08T23:48:31.693Z
https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/16678/how-far-away-is-the-nearest-compact-star-remnant-likely-to-be
ProfRob
<black-hole><resource-request><initial-mass-function>
How far are we from a black hole?
Charles
# How far are we from a black hole?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-12-08)

As far as I know, the closest (object reasonably believed to be a) black hole to Earth is [Gaia BH1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_BH1) at ~1560 ly. But presumably most black holes are hard to detect and there are undiscovered black holes closer. Knowing what we know about the [IMF](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_mass_function) and stellar evolution, how close can we reasonably expect to be to some black hole?

**Tags:** black-hole, resource-request, initial-mass-function

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: The duplicate gives the answer 18 parsecs or about 60 light years.  
> **username_2**: https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/16678/how-far-away-is-the-nearest-compact-star-remnant-likely-to-be  

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