Astronomers have discovered a twin star system orbiting the giant black hole Sagittarius A* at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The system, called D9, was discovered by the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at an altitude of 2,600 meters in the Atacama Desert in Chile, surprising scientists. Initially thought to be a single star, analysis of velocity data revealed that two stars were actually dancing together. Details in our news…

Twin stars orbit the Milky Way’s black hole

“Black holes are not as destructive as we thought,” said Florian Peißker of the University of Cologne, who led the research. This raises exciting new possibilities, such as the possibility of life around black holes. However, it is too early to say anything definitive about the existence of planets in such an environment.

The stars in the D9 system are very young. Scientists estimate that these stars are only 2.7 million years old. By comparison, that’s a blink of an eye compared to the Sun’s 4.6 billion years. Unfortunately, the future for these stars is not expected to last long. Sagittarius A*’s powerful gravity will eventually cause these twin stars to merge.

Could new stars be born around black holes?

This discovery debunks another myth: The fields around supermassive black holes are not as chaotic as previously thought. Michal Zajaček from the research team said that the D9 system shows that young stars can form near black holes. “This system points to a very young star system with the influence of the surrounding gas and dust clouds,” he said.

D9 is part of the S star cluster around Sagittarius A*. This cluster is made up of celestial objects orbiting at incredible speeds around the black hole at the galaxy’s center. It also contains mysterious structures called G objects, which act like both gas clouds and stars. Scientists think that these objects may have formed from twin star systems that had previously merged.

With the VLT’s GRAVITY+ upgrade and the future Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), astronomers plan to delve even deeper into the secrets of the galaxy center. “This discovery strengthens the idea that planets can exist around young stars. It now seems that it is only a matter of time before we discover the existence of planets in the galactic center,” Peißker added.