Scientists in a major breakthrough have discovered the fastest-known star in a zoom-whirl orbit near the galactic core and which may help determine black hole’s rotational velocity.
The star is roughly around 50% more massive and brighter than our sun travels at a speed more than 8% the speed of light, showing stars in our galaxy are not strictly capped as earlier thought.
The star, 301 is in eccentric orbit around Sgr A* taking about 8.7 years to complete an orbit as its nearest approach to the center of attraction, it comes within 12 to 24 astronomical units, where an astronomical unit is Earth’s orbital distance from the Sun.
Black holes are gravitational collapse so strong that not even light can escape. Sgr A* owns about 4 million times the sun’s mass and is located about 26,000 light-years from Earth.
The study is published in the journal Nature in which astrophysicist Stefan Gillessen said: “Its orbit will not decay anytime soon. So, the orientation of the orbit will change but it is not in danger of being swallowed.”
“It is not a wobble — like in back and forth — but rather the star gets pushed onto a slightly different orbit each time it passes the black hole. That means that by observing that change in orbit for another good decade, we should be able to directly determine the spin of the black hole. Such a measurement is unheard of, so far,” Gillessen continued.
Nonetheless, Sgr A* continued influence exerted on S301 along its orbital path may enable scientists to better measure the black hole’s rotation. Black holes are believed to spin and measuring it is also difficult because black holes emit no light and are imperceptible.
