by NEW YORK (AP) — Scientists have discovered what looks like two stars swirling around each other near the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy.
Almost every large galaxy has a supermassive black hole at its heart. The star at the center of the Milky Way, called Sagittarius A (asterisk), is about 4 million times more massive than our Sun and is relatively quiet, occasionally swallowing gas or dust that gets in its path.
Scientists know that stars can form near and even orbit these black hole giants, but they have never seen a pair of stars survive so close together.
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The research was published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.
The sky sighting is interesting and unusual, and more research is needed to be sure what objects they are, said astrophysicist Anna Ciurlo of the University of California, Los Angeles.
“That still leaves some questions unanswered,” said Ciurlo, who was not involved in the new research.
At around 2.7 million years old, the twin stars appear to be quite young. Scientists said they appear to orbit each other at just the right distance: if they were too far apart, the black hole’s gravity would tear them apart. As they approached closer, they would merge into a single star.
However, the cosmic duo will not remain stable forever. They could merge into one unit at some point, although the timing is uncertain, said study leader Florian Peissker from the University of Cologne.
“We’re actually in a really fortunate situation,” he said. “We observed the system just in time.”
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Science and Educational Media Group of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
