Fastest star ever spotted at the centre of our galaxy
A newfound star called S301 is both the fastest ever seen and the closest to a supermassive black hole –and it could make bafflingly difficult tests of gravity possible at last
A star named S301 near the center of our Milky Way galaxy is traveling at an astonishing speed of over 8 percent the speed of light, making it the fastest star ever observed and the closest to a supermassive black hole. This remarkable discovery could provide valuable insights into the nature of gravity. Astronomers from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany identified S301 using the Very Large Telescope in Chile and have been monitoring it since 2023 to determine its orbit.
At its closest approach, S301 is only about 1.8 billion kilometers from Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the core of our galaxy – just 12 times the distance between Earth and the sun, and ten times closer than the previous record-holder. If a star were orbiting this black hole, it would appear as large as the full moon from Earth.
The intense gravitational environment near the black hole causes space-time to stretch and warp, and if the black hole is spinning, it would create an even more pronounced effect known as frame-dragging. Measuring the spin of Sagittarius A* using this method could take around a decade, but it will be a crucial piece in understanding the evolution of the universe and the behavior of gravity in extreme conditions.
Written by urgent.news from New Scientist's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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