Using data from ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and Keck telescope, astronomers have discovered a binary star system in the S star cluster close to Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. It is the first time a binary star has been found in the vicinity of a supermassive black hole.
Sagittarius A* is orbited by high-velocity stars and dusty objects, which are known collectively as the S-cluster.
Binary star systems — two stars gravitationally bound to one another around a common center of gravity — have been predicted to exist within the S-cluster, however they have not previously been detected.
Previous research has suggested that such stars are unlikely to be stable due to the interactions between the stars and Sagittarius A*.
“Black holes are not as destructive as we thought,” said Dr. Florian Peißker, an astronomer at the University of Cologne.
“Our discovery shows that some binaries can briefly thrive, even under destructive conditions.”
Named D9, the newly-discovered binary star is estimated to be only 2.7 million years old.
The strong gravitational force of the nearby black hole will probably cause it to merge into a single star within just one million years, a very narrow timespan for such a young system.
“This provides only a brief window on cosmic timescales to observe such a binary system — and we succeeded,” said Dr. Emma Bordier, also from the University of Cologne.
“The D9 system shows clear signs of the presence of gas and dust around the stars, which suggests that it could be a very young stellar system that must have formed in the vicinity of the supermassive black hole,” said Dr. Michal Zajaček, an astronomer at Masaryk University and the University of Cologne.
Most enigmatic in the S cluster are the G objects, which behave like stars but look like clouds of gas and dust.
It was during their observations of these mysterious objects that the team found a surprising pattern…
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