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[TECHNOLOGY] · Chile, Germany · 62 sources

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S301 star discovered as fastest in Milky Way orbiting central black hole

Astronomers have discovered S301, the fastest star ever detected in the Milky Way. The star orbits Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, at speeds reaching approximately 25,000 kilometers per second, which is about 8 percent of the speed of light.

Using the GRAVITY+ instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile, the international research team identified the star’s tight orbit. S301 completes a full revolution around the black hole every 8.7 years and reaches a proximity to the black hole comparable to Saturn’s distance from the Sun.

Scientists believe S301 was likely once part of a binary star system that was torn apart by the black hole’s intense gravity. This discovery provides a unique opportunity to study the fundamental properties of spacetime and may allow researchers to measure the rotation of Sagittarius A* over the next decade, testing Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

Entities

Atacama Desert · European Southern Observatory · European Southern Observatory · J0148-4214 · James Webb Space Telescope · Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics · Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics · Milky Way · Milky Way · Reinhard Genzel · S301 · Sagittarius A*

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