Researchers have detected what they characterize as the fastest known star in the Milky Way galaxy. The star, designated S301, travels at velocities around 25,000 kilometers per second as it orbits Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the galactic center. This velocity is approximately 100,000 times faster than commercial aircraft travel.
The discovery is significant because S301 maintains an exceptionally tight orbit around the black hole, completing one full orbit every 8.7 years while approaching within roughly 12 times the Earth-Sun distance. This proximity is unprecedented among known stars in this region. According to researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, the star’s orbital characteristics provide an unprecedented opportunity to study the black hole’s fundamental properties and the extreme environment surrounding it.
Theoretically, spinning black holes warp spacetime according to Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which affects the orbits of nearby stars. S301’s highly eccentric and exceptionally tight orbital path makes it an ideal candidate for measuring this effect directly. Scientists involved in the research note that previous approaches would have required observing multiple stars over several decades to estimate the spin of Sagittarius A*. With S301, measurements taken since 2017 and continuing through its next closest approach in 2031 could yield sufficient data within approximately ten years.
The observations were conducted using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, which combines light from four 8-meter telescopes. Researchers emphasized that despite its extreme proximity to the black hole, S301 is not expected to cross the event horizon. Independent astrophysicists have noted the discovery’s importance, highlighting that the star’s peak velocity reaches approximately 8 percent of light speed, which they describe as extraordinary and potentially transformative for understanding galactic evolution.
Article Attribution | Read More at Article Source
Article summary produced by Claude AI