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Astrophysicists have theorized for decades that our galaxy and all large galaxies have a supermassive black hole lurking at the center of their galactic core(s) with an amazing telltale formation of stars surrounding the massive singularity, forever bound to it, alternately being flung about and falling toward the inescapable gravity well. Many of these stars will settle into meta-stable orbits of the black hole, where others, doomed by speed and trajectory will plunge past the event horizon never to return. The GRAVITY Collaboration, a team of scientists using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) Interferometer in Chile and combining observations have been able to closely nail down the orbits of the ‘S-Group’ stars orbiting the Sagitarrius A black hole at the center of the Milky Way.
Stars Orbiting The Center Of Our Galaxy At Amazing Speeds
Using these advanced techniques and given how unbelievably fast these stars orbit the singularity scientists of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) have been able to track their progress very closely and by estimating their mass, predict the actual mass of the black hole. This has allowed scientists to theorize the mass of the black hole to be a mind-boggling: 4.3 million times the mass of our sun!
The ESO posted an incredible rendering of the ‘S-Group’ stars orbits to Youtube describing it,
“This animation shows the orbits of the stars S29 and S55 as they move close to Sgr A* (centre), the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way. As we follow the stars along in their orbits, we see real images of the region obtained with the GRAVITY instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) in March, May, June and July 2021. In addition to S29 and S55, the images also show two fainter stars, S62 and S300, the latter having only been discovered following these new VLTI observations.”
The composite video shows that stars S29 and S55 made their closest approaches to the deadly maelstrom in 2021 so they’re moving at their highest speed or about 19.2 million mph, being flung so fast that if the black hole itself is also spinning, ” it can literally drag the fabric of spacetime around with it. If a star gets close enough that effect can potentially be measured, and the spin of Sgr A* determined. None has been seen yet, but the astronomers are hoping future observations will pay off with one.”
