Fastest known Milky Way star offers new test of supermassive black hole's spin
Astronomers have discovered the fastest known star in our galaxy, the Milky Way, orbiting the black hole at its center. The star, named S301, was detected with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (ESO's VLTI) and reaches speeds of 25,000 km/s (15,500 miles per second) as it travels around the four-million-solar-mass black hole. It comes closer to it than any…
Astronomers have discovered the fastest known star in our Milky Way galaxy, named S301, which orbits the supermassive black hole at its center. S301 was detected using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) and travels at an astonishing speed of 25,000 kilometers per second, or 8% of the speed of light.
Located only 12 times the distance between Earth and the sun from the black hole, it is the closest observed star to Sagittarius A*. This unique proximity allows S301 to experience the effects of the black hole's rotation, offering a rare opportunity to measure the spin of the supermassive object. According to the theory of general relativity, a spinning black hole drags spacetime along with it, twisting it and influencing the orbits of nearby stars.
By studying S301 over the next decade, scientists hope to directly measure the black hole's spin, providing a crucial test of Einstein's theory.
Written by urgent.news from Phys.org's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
This story
This is one outlet's version. Read the fullest account.
- Telescope spies the fastest star in the Milky Way zipping around a black hole apnews.com
- A record-breaking star could reveal how the Milky Way’s giant black hole spins sciencenews.org
- Telescope spies the fastest star in the Milky Way zipping around a black hole toronto.citynews.ca
- Telescope spies the fastest star in the Milky Way zipping around a black hole winnipegfreepress.com
