Fastest Star in the Milky Way Discovered Orbiting Supermassive Black Hole
A telescope has identified the fastest known star in the Milky Way, which is racing around the supermassive black hole located at the center of our galaxy. This star reaches astonishing speeds of about 15,534 miles per second, which is roughly 100,000 times faster than a commercial airplane. According to astronomer Stefan Gillessen from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, this star is exceptionally fast.
The newly discovered star orbits the black hole at a closer distance than any previously known star, completing a full revolution in just 8.7 years. It utilizes the gravitational pull of the black hole to achieve such high speeds without being drawn into it.
Gillessen and his team uncovered this star using data collected by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, situated in the Atacama Desert of Chile. Their findings were published in the journal Nature. There are several hundred stars that orbit this massive black hole, and scientists have mapped the orbits of around 50 of them. The new star is located ten times closer to the black hole than the previous record holder, allowing it to experience the effects of the black hole's rotation more intensely.
Supermassive black holes are believed to exist at the centers of nearly all large galaxies. However, studying them poses challenges, as nothing can escape their gravitational pull, not even light. This makes it difficult for scientists to understand the dynamics at play within these regions.
Researching stars like this one can help scientists measure various properties of supermassive black holes, including their spin rates. Advanced telescopes are now capable of detecting fainter stars that were previously overlooked, suggesting that there may be even faster stars yet to be discovered. Astronomer Tuan Do from the University of California, Los Angeles, who was not involved in the study, remarked that this discovery is likely just the beginning, as many more stars like this one could exist in the galaxy.
