The international group of researchers discovered a double star near the super -massive black hole of Sagittarius A* (sagittarius a*) located in the center of the Milky Way.
Experts emphasized that we are talking about the first case when “the star couple was discovered near a super -massive black hole.”
Scientists call the “unusual” the fact that the stars who are so close to the Sagittarius A were able to exist, despite the intense gravitational field of the ultra -massive black hole.
Stars are about 2.7 million years old. Astronomers also drew attention to the distance between the two celestial bodies rotating around each other.
If the stars are further away from each other, they can break up to parts due to the gravitational force of the black hole, and if closer, they can merge into one star, experts say.
Researcher Florian Paisker from the University of Cologne in Germany Udya that two stars can ultimately merge, although the exact time is still unknown.
The discovery of a double star, which was designated as D9, near the arcue A* shows that some binary systems can exist in destructive conditions.
It was previously believed that the conditions created around black holes do not allow new stars to be created, but the discovery of D9 refuted this belief.
The results of the study are published in the journal Nature Communications.