Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Residing in the center of the Milky Way, Sgr A* is the closest massive black hole. Its vicinity has allowed measuring individual stellar orbits around it with periods as short as 12 years. The stars act as test particles and probe the gravitational potential around the 4.3 × 10^6 M_sun black hole. These observations have determined the central mass to sub-percent precision, and the mildly relativistic motions of stars have given access to seeing the dominant relativistic corrections, the gravitational redshift, the transverse Doppler effect and the prograde precession imposed by the Schwarzschild metric nature of the potential. These effects are of order (v/c)^2 (for velocity v and speed of light c). The Kerr metric occur- ring for a rotating black hole leads to corrections of order (v/c)^3. Here, we report the discovery of a faint main sequence star (mK = 19.3), S301, the orbit of which has a period of 8.7 years and small enough a pericenter distance, such that the star’s peak velocity reaches 25000 km/s or 8% of c. Within the measurement capabilities of current near-infrared interferometry and future spectroscopy on an extremely large telescope, S301’s motion is directly sensitive to the spin of Sgr A*. The high eccentricity of S301 suggests that it is the captured component of a binary that was torn apart via the Hills mechanism, sending the other component away as a hyper-velocity star.
Source: Nature
Authors: K. Abd El Dayem, R. Abuter, N. Aimar, P. Amaro-Seoane, A. Berdeu, J.-P. Berger, G. Bourdarot, W. Brandner, A. Burkert, D. Calderón, C. Correia, J. Cuadra, R. Davies, D. Defrère, L. Delit, A. Drescher, F. Eisenhauer, L. Esteras Otal, M. Fabricius, H. Feuchtgruber, S. Flesch, N. M. Förster Schreiber, A. Foschi, Q. Fournier, P. Garcia, R. Garcia Lopez, A. Generozov, R. Genzel, S. Gillessen, F. Gonté, X. Haubois, S. F. Hönig, M. Houllé, S. Joharle, A. Kaufer, J. Kammerer, P. Kervella, J. Kolb, L. Kreidberg, L. Labadie, S. Lacour, O. Lai, R. Laugier, J.-B. Le Bouquin, J. Leftley, R. Li, B. Lopez, D. Lutz, F. Mang, A. Mérand, F. Millour, M. Montargès, N. Morujão, H. Nowacki, M. Nowak, S. Oberti, J. Osorno, T. Ott, T. Paumard, C. Paladini, S. Pappert, H. B. Perets, K. Perraut, G. Perrin, R. Petrov, P. O. Petrucci, T. Piran, N. Pourré, S. Rabien, D. C. Ribeiro, S. Robbe-Dubois, M. Sadun Bordoni, J. Sanchez-Bermudez, D. Santos, R. Sari, J. Sauter, S. Scheithauer, J. Scigliuto, J. Shangguan, T. T. Shimizu, F. Soulez, J. Stadler, C. Straubmeier, E. Sturm, M. Subroweit, C. Sykes, L. J. Tacconi, P. Thévenet, I. Urso, F. Vincent, J. Woillez, G. Zins, J.-B. Le Bouquin
Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, Observatoire de Paris, Sorbonne Université, European Southern Observatory, University of Lisbon, Universidade do Porto, Instituto Superior Técnico, Centro de Astrofísica e Gravitação, Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Universitat Politècnica de València, Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble, Université Grenoble Alpes, Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Adolfo Ibáñez University, KU Leuven, Technical University of Munich, University College Dublin, The University of Texas at Austin, University of California, Berkeley, European Southern Observatory, University of Southampton, University of Chile, University of Cologne, Université Côte d'Azur, Lagrange Laboratory, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Lyon 1 Université, École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $12,690
Funders: Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung, European Commission, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, Conseil Régional, Île-de-France, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, European Southern Observatory, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Universidade de Lisboa, Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo, Observatoire de Paris, Université de Recherche Paris Sciences et Lettres, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Awards: G1828757707, LINKING HYDRODYNAMICAL SIMULATIONS OF SUPER-MASSIVE BLACK HOLES WITH MULTI-WAVELENGTH OBSERVATIONS, Gravidade no Centro Galáctico, NUCLEO MILENIO TECNOLOGIA Y INVESTIGACION TRANSVERSAL PARA ESTUDIAR AGUJEROS NEGROS, G3601847547, G434337789, Centro de Análise Matemática, Geometria e Sistemas Dinâmicos, Gravitational Universe: Challenges and Opportunities, Centro de Astrofísica e Gravitação, G5308013787, Centro de Astrofísica e Gravitação, G612732458, G7080048889, GRAVITY data fitting for general relativity
OpenAlex ID: W7203771396