Earth Sky | Whooshing sound! Fast star orbiting the Milky Way's black hole
This image shows the center of our Milky Way galaxy. It shows the position of stars in the so-called S star cluster, a small group of high-speed stars orbiting our Milky Way’s central black hole (at the black cross). Speedy star S4716 has set a new record as the fastest known of all these stars. Image via Peissker et al. Fast star orbiting the Milky Way’s black hole Scientists in Europe said on July 5, 2022 that they had found the fastest star known to orbit a black hole. And not just any black hole… it orbits Sagittarius A*, the giant black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Our central black hole weighs about 4 million times the mass of our sun. The newly discovered star is called S4716. It reaches an orbital speed of 5,000 miles per second (8,000 kps) around the black hole, or about 5,000 times faster than the fastest fighter jet. Imagine seeing star – a huge ball of turbulent gas that glows on its own – shooting at this speed! By the way, on the oth...