A team of astronomers has made a groundbreaking discovery at the centre of the Milky Way, finding a binary star system orbiting the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*. Located approximately 27,000 light years from Earth, this system is believed to be around 2.7 million years old.
The discovery sheds new light on the extreme environment surrounding our galaxy’s central black hole and helps explain why some stars move at significantly faster speeds than others. The binary star system, known as D9, was detected using observations of shifting starlight from the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope.
Binary star systems are useful to astronomers because their motion contains valuable information about the masses of the stars involved. In contrast, single-star systems typically rely on measuring brightness to calculate mass.
This discovery is significant not only for understanding binary star systems but also for unraveling the nature of supermassive black holes. By analyzing the age of the stars in the system, astronomers can infer the black hole’s ability to disrupt stars in its orbit.
The presence of a binary star system around Sagittarius A* supports a long-standing theory that these black holes can create hypervelocity stars. These fast-moving stars were previously thought to originate from unknown sources but are now believed to be ejected from binary systems orbiting supermassive black holes.
This discovery marks an important step forward in understanding the complex dynamics of our galaxy’s central region and has significant implications for the study of supermassive black holes and their role in shaping the universe.
Source: https://www.sciencealert.com/world-first-star-twins-discovered-orbiting-milky-ways-black-hole