Around the black hole in the center of the Milky Way, a star in a rosette shape ‘dances’, we discovered astronomers with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). This motion had never been observed near a star, but after 27 years of observations, it has now been seen with certainty in the center of the Milky Way.
Per ‘circle’ that the star, called S2, revolves around the black hole Sagittarius A *, the orbit of the star shifts slightly. This makes the ‘waltz’ that S2 performs around the black hole look like a rosette.
Albert Einstein predicted this way of moving about a hundred years ago, but evidence was found only once before. It was previously concluded that Mercury also moves around our sun in such a way.
Now the motion has been observed at a star for the first time. During his dance, S2 takes one orbit for about sixteen years, skimming past the black hole at less than 20 billion kilometers. This is 120 times the distance between the Sun and Earth.
At its closest point to the black hole, the star passes at about 9,000 kilometers per second, or about 3 percent of the speed of light.
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The Milky Way as it would look if people could perceive radio waves with the naked eye. The white spot in the center is where the black hole Sagitarrius A * is located. (Photo: Dr Natasha Hurley-Walker (ICRAR / Curtin) and the GLEAM Team)
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