Scientists find closest star to the Milky Way's central black hole
Summary
Astronomers have identified a new star, S301, on an extremely close and highly eccentric orbit around the Milky Way’s central black hole, Sgr A*. The star’s periapsis may bring it within about 11 AU of the black hole at speeds near 25,000 km/s, enabling potential measurements of the black hole’s spin. Observations with the GRAVITY instrument on the VLT could yield spin estimates within a decade and open new avenues for testing black hole geometry and relativity.