The discovery of a small star near the black hole – the researchers were surprised by its presence

A small star close to the black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The researchers are amazed: in fact, it shouldn’t be there.

Cologne – In the center of the Milky Way is the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*. It is surrounded by an extreme region where the black hole’s immense gravity and energetic emissions act. The stars that live there become very fast, among other things. Research posits that there are no young stars in this field, let alone forming ones. But now an international research team led by Florian Pesker of the Institute for Astrophysics at the University of Cologne has announced an unexpected discovery.

The team discovered a young star about a third of a light-year away from the black hole. According to one of them, this is only a few tens of thousands of years old, and therefore younger than the human race communication University of Cologne. The special feature: the young star named X3a should not be close to the supermassive black hole. For a long time it was assumed that only ancient stars could settle near the black hole in the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

The young star X3a is very close to the black hole

The small star X3a is ten times the mass of our Sun and fifteen times more massive, and required special conditions for its formation in the immediate vicinity of the black hole. The research team thinks they’ve found it: “At a distance of just a few light-years from the black hole, there is a region that meets the conditions for star formation,” explains Baeker, first author of a study on the young star X3a. in the specialized magazine Astrophysical Journal published had become.

And the researcher continues: “This ring of gas and dust is cool enough and protected from harmful radiation.” In this region, low temperatures and high densities can lead to the formation of clouds of material hundreds of solar masses, which, through interactions with each other, quickly move towards the black hole.

A dense cloud of gas must have formed near the black hole

The research group hypothesizes that in this black hole-protected region, a dense cloud of gas formed and collapsed under its own gravity to turn into one or more stars. Only then should the young star descend to its current orbit.

“The time of the alleged fall roughly corresponds to the age of the X3a. Therefore, we assume that the process was the birth of the X3a,” Peißker explains. According to the research group, the scenario would also fit the evolutionary state of a young star, which is in the process of evolving from an immature protostar to a mature star.

The black hole at the center of the Milky Way: “X3a is an interstellar giant”

Michael Zajaček (Masaryk University, Brno) is sure: “X3a is an interstellar giant”. These giants very quickly evolved into a mature star. “We were fortunate to have discovered the massive star inside a comet-shaped envelope,” says Zajaček, a co-author of the study. Among other things, the shell orbiting the star indicates its young age, according to the researchers.

The researchers believe that because similar rings of dust and gas can be found in other galaxies, the star formation mechanism could be at work there as well. Further observations are therefore planned using the James Webb space telescope of NASA, ESA and CSA and the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope in Chile. They should provide more indications as to whether research set theory is correct. (unpaid bill)