2024-06-25 06:00:03
The heart of our galaxy holds many mysteries. Astronomers have just discovered new young stellar objects (YSOs) near the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, at the center of the Milky Way. These unexpected stars adopt intriguing formations and raise new questions about the dynamic stellar around black holes.
Crédit: Astronomy & Astrophysics (2024).
The newly identified objects follow orbits similar to those of the already known stars, forming precise patterns around Sagittarius A*. This observation was made thanks to a study titled “Candidate young stellar objects in the S-cluster: Kinematic analysis of a subpopulation of the low-mass G objects close to Sgr A*”, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics. This research, conducted by scientists from several European institutions, challenges existing theories. Indeed, it was expected to find only old and inactive stars near the black hole, but the reality turns out to be more complex with the presence of young dynamic stars, called S stars.
These S stars, discovered near Sagittarius A*, fascinate researchers with their youth and extreme speed. Their presence in this region remains a major scientific mystery.
Thanks to technological advances and long observation periods, new questions are emerging. In 2012, the discovery of a mysterious object, initially thought to be a gas cloud absorbed by the black hole, led to new hypotheses. Today, this object could be a YSO surrounded by a dust cloud.
The researchers also focused on a dozen other similar objects in the same area, revealing that they are even younger than the S stars. The YSOs exhibit behavior identical to that of the S stars, moving at high speeds around the black hole, completing an orbit in just a few years.
Dr. Florian Peißker from the Institute of Astrophysics at theUniversity of Cologne emphasizes that the presence of these YSOs forms a “constellation “stellar” organization, despite an appearance of chaos. The black hole appears to impose a precise orbital structure on surrounding stars, defying scientists’ expectations.
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