But recently astronomers have used data collected by the European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft to detect three previously unknown black holes and, it turns out, are the closest known to Earth.

Gaia has been peering into the universe from a stable orbit 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) from Earth called the second Lagrange point. But the neighborhood has been getting more crowded ...

Fierce Earth is a science series taking CBBC viewers on a journey to experience the true power of planet Earth. Fusing archive footage, experiments, experts and personal stories, each episode ...

Related: Goodnight, Gaia! ESA spacecraft shuts down after 12 years of Milky Way mapping For example, the team needed to move the probe from its science orbit at the Earth-Sun Lagrange Point 2 ...