SPACE — Astronomers may have discovered an ‘intruder’ in the Milky Way Galaxy. This extragalactic intruder is among the stars orbiting the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A*.
For information, Sgr A* is surrounded by a row of stars. Its fast orbit has helped astronomers determine that the black hole has a mass about 4.5 million times that of the Sun.
The existence of these stars is still mysterious. Because Sgr A*’s very strong gravity should make the heart of the Milky Way a too turbulent and violent environment. In theory, it should not allow star formation to occur.
This led scientists to theorize that stars around Sgr A* may have migrated to this region after being born elsewhere in the universe.
Now, new findings from an international team of scientists, led by Miyagi University of Education researcher Shogo Nishiyama reveal that some of these stars may have taken a much longer journey to Sgr A* than previously thought.
Specifically, the team found that the star named “S0–6” may be more than 10 billion years old. The star may have originated 50,000 light years away from its current location.
To deduce the true origin of extragalactic object S0–6, Nishiyama and colleagues studied the star for eight years using the Subaru Telescope. Subaru is an 8.2 meter optical infrared telescope located near the summit of Maunakea on the island of Hawaii. This telescope is operated by National Astronomical. Observatory of Japan (NAOJ).
According to the investigation, the star visible just 0.3 arcseconds from Sgr A*, has a chemical composition that resembles stars found in small satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, such as the Small Magellanic Cloud and the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy.
Judging from its chemical composition, scientists theorize that S0–6 was born in a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way which was ‘eaten’ by the Milky Way galaxy in the last 10 billion years. This will cause the star to travel tens of thousands of light years to Sgr A* and eventually revolve around the galactic black hole.
If this is true, then S0–6 would be the first extragalactic star discovered near Sgr A*. However, many questions remain regarding the existence of this star.
“Did S0–6 really come from outside the Milky Way galaxy? “With further investigation, we hope to unravel the mystery of stars near supermassive black holes,” said the scientist as quoted by Space.
The team’s research was published Dec. 1 in the journal Proceedings of the Japan Academy, Series B.
2023-12-08 02:55:00
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