New Star S301 Closes In on Milky Way's Black Hole

4:56 PM ETDeveloping

Science Desk

Big Black Holes Mean Bad News for Stars diagram — NASA (PIA08697) — public domain

This orbit suggested that, early in 2023, it had its closest approach to the black hole, one that took it closer than any star we had previously identified. In 2023, this allowed them to spot a star moving away from the black hole, which they termed S301.

In Wednesday’s issue of Nature, researchers describe a recently discovered star that is on an extremely eccentric orbit that takes it closer to Sgr A* than anything we’ve previously identified. The best orbital model suggests that this star takes only 8.7 years to complete an orbit, more than three years less than any other star in the area.

Black hole - Messier 87 — Photo: Event Horizon Telescope / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

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In Wednesday’s issue of Nature, researchers describe a recently discovered star that is on an extremely eccentric orbit that takes it closer to Sgr A* than anything we’ve previously identified.
In 2023, this allowed them to spot a star moving away from the black hole, which they termed S301.
This orbit suggested that, early in 2023, it had its closest approach to the black hole, one that took it closer than any star we had previously identified.
The best orbital model suggests that this star takes only 8.7 years to complete an orbit, more than three years less than any other star in the area.

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