Astronomers have discovered the fastest known star in our galaxy, racing around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. The star zips around the black hole at speeds of about 25,000 kilometers per second (15,534 miles per second), which is 100,000 times faster than a commercial airplane. This was reported by infohub.kz.
According to astronomer Stefan Gillessen of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, this star is truly extremely fast. The newly discovered star also orbits the black hole at a closer range than ever observed, completing a revolution in just 8.7 years. It harnesses the black hole's gravity to fly faster without falling in.
Gillessen and colleagues uncovered the star in data collected by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile's Atacama Desert. Their findings were published in the journal Nature.
There are several hundred stars that closely orbit this giant black hole and are sensitive to its gravity. Scientists have mapped the orbits of about 50 of them. The new star is 10 times closer than the previous record holder, meaning it also feels the effects of the black hole's rotation. Supermassive black holes lurk in the center of almost every large galaxy, but nothing can escape them—not even light—so it's notoriously difficult for scientists to figure out what's going on inside.
Studying stars like this one could help scientists measure the black hole's mysterious properties, including how fast it spins. Advanced telescopes are helping to pinpoint fainter stars that previously eluded detection, so there could be even speedier ones waiting to be found.
"This is just the tip of the iceberg," said astronomer Tuan Do of the University of California, Los Angeles, who was not involved in the study. "As we get fainter, there should be many more stars like this."