Astronomers have observed a star speeding close to the massive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way for the first time.
The observations, made using the Very Large Telescope in Chile, tracked a star called S2 as it passed through the extreme gravitational field at the heart of our galaxy.
As the star approached its nearest point to the black hole on 19 May, it was accelerated to mind-boggling speeds, causing it to be subject to effects predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
Astronomers had been tracking the star and preparing to make the observations for the past 16 years – the time taken for the star to complete a single elliptical orbit of the black hole.
“We have been preparing intensely for this event over several years, as we wanted to make the most of this unique opportunity to observe general relativistic effects,” said Reinhard Genzel of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Garching, Germany, who led the international team.
A major challenge was picking out the faint star 26,000 light years from Earth as it travelled in front of the black hole, which itself is surrounded by a halo of glowing dust and debris.
For more read the full of article at The Guardian
