In 1996, the fastest star known as S4716 was discovered by the University of Cologne and Masaryk University, with the help of five telescopes—OSIRIS and NIR2 from Hawaii, and SINFONI, NACO, and GRAVITY from the European Southern Observatory— with four of them being combined into a bigger telescope to provide a clearer view of the star.
Researchers have found that S4716 orbits a black hole called Sagittarius A, which measures 23.5 million kilometers across and is in the center of the Milky Way, orbiting 9.2 billion miles away from it. After 20 years of observation, researchers found out that S4716 travels at a speed of about 5,000 miles every second, and takes four years to orbit the whole perimeter of Sagittarius A, which is the shortest orbital time of any star.
S4716 is a part of a pack of stars called the S-star cluster or the Sagittarius A cluster which includes about 100 fast stars.
S4716 is a cool discovery, and maybe, in the future, an even faster star will be discovered.
Sources: https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/62081631
Researchers have found that S4716 orbits a black hole called Sagittarius A, which measures 23.5 million kilometers across and is in the center of the Milky Way, orbiting 9.2 billion miles away from it. After 20 years of observation, researchers found out that S4716 travels at a speed of about 5,000 miles every second, and takes four years to orbit the whole perimeter of Sagittarius A, which is the shortest orbital time of any star.
S4716 is a part of a pack of stars called the S-star cluster or the Sagittarius A cluster which includes about 100 fast stars.
S4716 is a cool discovery, and maybe, in the future, an even faster star will be discovered.
Sources: https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/62081631
