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Scientists just found the fastest known star in the Milky Way. It zooms around our black hole at 15,500 miles per second
Space • • general
Key Points:
- Astronomers have identified S301 as the fastest known star in the Milky Way, orbiting the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* at speeds up to 15,500 miles per second, or over 8% the speed of light.
- S301 completes a tight orbit around Sagittarius A* every 8.7 years, approaching as close as 12 times the Earth-Sun distance, providing an unprecedented opportunity to study the black hole's properties.
- The star's proximity allows researchers to potentially observe frame dragging effects predicted by general relativity, which could reveal the spin of Sagittarius A* within about a decade.
- Discovered in 2023 via the GRAVITY instrument at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer, S301's elongated orbit suggests it was once part of a binary system disrupted by the black hole.
- Continued observations with advanced instruments like GRAVITY+ and the Extremely Large Telescope aim to capture S301's next close pass in 2031, potentially enabling direct measurement of the black hole's spin.
