A newly discovered star takes just four years to orbit the black hole at the center of our galaxy. In the vicinity of the black hole at the center of our galaxy is a dense star cluster. This cluster, known as the S cluster, is home to more than a hundred stars that vary in their brightness and mass. The S stars move exceptionally fast.
Dr Florian Peissker, lead author of the new study, said: “One prominent member, S2, behaves like an adult sitting in front of you in a movie theater: it blocks your view of something. is important. ‘As a result, the view to the center of our galaxy is often obscured by S2. However, for brief moments, we can observe the surroundings of the central black hole. ‘
By continuously improving analytical methods, along with observations over nearly twenty years, scientists have now reliably identified a star that moves around the central supermassive black hole in just four years. . A total of five telescopes observed the star, with four of these being combined into one large telescope to allow for more detailed and precise observations. “For a star to be in such a stable and fast orbit in the vicinity of a supermassive black hole is completely unexpected and marks the limit of what can be observed with a telescope,” said Peissker. traditional literature,” says Peissker.
Furthermore, the discovery sheds light on the origin and orbital evolution of fast-moving stars within the Milky Way. Michael Zajacek, an astrophysicist at Masaryk University in Brno who was involved in the study, said: ‘S4716’s compact, short-term orbit is quite confusing. ‘Stars cannot form so easily near black holes. S4716 had to travel inward, for example by approaching stars and other objects in the S cluster, which caused its orbit to narrow significantly,’ he added.
