5384 20210716114057.0 10.1038/s41586-020-2216-x DOI SCART-2021-0105 Abdul-Masih, M. On the signature of a 70-solar-mass black hole in LB-1 2020 Liu et al. (2019) recently reported the detection of a 68 [+11/-13] solar mass (Msun) black hole (BH) paired with an 8.2 [+0.9/-1.2] Msun B-type sub-giant star in the 78.9-day spectroscopic binary system LB-1. Such a black hole is over twice as massive as any other known stellar-mass black hole with non-compact companions2 and its mass approaches those that result from BH-BH coalescences that are detected by gravitational wave interferometers. Its presence in a solar-like metallicity environment challenges conventional theories of massive binary evolution, stellar winds and core-collapse supernovae, so that more exotic scenarios seem to be needed to explain the existence and properties of LB-1. Here, we show that the observational diagnostics used to derive the BH mass results from the orbital motion of the B-type star, not that of the BH. As a consequence, no evidence for a massive BH remains in the data, therefore solving the existing tension with formation models of such a massive BH at solar metallicity and with theories of massive star evolution in general. NO Banyard, G. Bodensteiner, J. Bordier, E. Bowman, D. M. Dsilva, K. Fabry, M. Hawcroft, C. Mahy, L. Marchant, P. Raskin, G. Reggiani, M. Shenar, T. Tkachenko, A. Van Winckel, H. Vermeylen, L. Sana, H. Nature 580 2020 7805 p.E11-E15 laurent.mahy@ksb-orb.be published in REFERD