Astronomers have exposed
a star that hits record speed, moving around the central black hole (BH) of our
Milky Way galaxy at a speed of 5,000 kilometers per second and making a
complete rotate in less than 12 years.
This discovery gives
scientists a unique opportunity over the next decade to test the theory of
relativity in extreme conditions.
Star is called S0-102.
It is one of the stars of the S-Class, around the center of our Milky Way
galaxy in the form of a spherical shell. Orbital period of S0-102 is 11.5
years. With her around the black hole rotates another star, S0-2, the period
of which a little more than a period S0-102, and is 16 years old.
The presence of two
stars with small orbital periods will allow astronomers to estimate precession
(change in the spatial orientation) of their orbits over time, and using this
information to estimate how much the huge black hole gravity, the mass of which
is millions of solar masses, twisted its surrounding space.
"We have to get
close to the event horizon of the black hole as close as we can," - says
Andrea Guez (Andrea Ghez), professor of astronomy at the University of
California, Los Angeles, and one of the leaders of the research team that
discovered S0-102.
Event Horizon - a point
of no return beyond which nothing, not even light, cannot escape the black
hole.
The new study was
presented in the issue of Science on October 5.
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