Fastest Star Completed Its Orbital Period Around Supermassive Black Hole Sagittarius A* at the Center of Milky Way Under 4 Years

A team of astrophysicists discovered the fastest star-traveling around the black hole at the center of the Milky Way. According to the research published in the Astrophysical Journal, the star completed an orbit around Sagittarius A* in just around four years. It indicates that the star is moving at a rate of around 18 million mph or nearly 5,000 miles per second.

The researchers identified the star as S4716, a member of the S cluster known as the dense and tightly packed grouping of stars. The cluster orbits close to the galactic center and the Milky Way supermassive black hole. The group moves together, yet their brightness and mass vary.

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Astrophysicists Identify the Fastest Star Around Milky Way

According to Masaryk University in Brno astrophysicist Michael Zajaček, the short period of S4716's orbit is quite puzzling. The stars could not form near the black hole. It had to move inwards, which would cause the orbit to shrink significantly. An example of an inward movement is when a star approaches other stars and objects in the S cluster.

"S2 behaves like a large person sitting in front of you in a movie theater - it blocks your view of what's important," said Florian Peissker, an astrophysicist at the University of Cologne and co-author of the new research, EurekAlert reported.

He addedthat the view into the center of the galaxy is therefore often obscured by S2. Yet in a short period, the surroundings of the central black hole can be observed.

While this may appear quite far away, in cosmic terms, it is just 100 times farther than the distance between Earth and the sun. For instance, the sun travels 26,000 light-years to orbit Sagittarius A*, with a light-year equivalent to 5.9 trillion miles.

The discovery of the star near the black hole could change the understanding of how the galaxy has evolved particularly about its fast-moving central stars.

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Methods Used to Identify the Fastest Star Found Around Sagittarius A

Five telescopes such as NIR2, OSIRIS, SINFONI, NACO, and GRAVITY observed the fastest star. Four of these telescopes were combined into one huge telescope to enable even more precise and thorough observations.

To maximize the validation of the data, high pass filter techniques were employed to reduce the background noise and dampened the wings/Airy wings of the point spread function. Wikipedia defined the point spread function as service parts of an imaging system to a point source or point object.

The two filter techniques include the SM algorithm and the LR algorithm. The SM algorithm is a reliable tool. But the tool resulting images suffering from noise and extend the fraction minima. It can be observed especially around S2. On the other hand, the LR algorithm is sensitive to the input parameters specified and should work in conjunction with the algorithm to prevent a confused analysis.

The International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) for Astronomy and Astrophysics, the Cologne Bonn Graduate School (BCGS), the Max Planck Society, and special grants from the University of Cologne all contributed to the funding of this project.