High-velocity baby stars circle the supermassive black hole Sgr A* like a swarm of bees

Observational astronomy shows that newly discovered young stellar objects (YSOs) in the immediate vicinity of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* located at the center of our galaxy are behaving differently than expected. They describe similar orbits to already known young evolved stars and are arranged in a certain pattern around the supermassive black hole.

Studies show that Sgr A* causes stellar objects to take on certain formations. The study is titled “Candidate young stellar objects in the S-cluster: Kinematic analysis of a subpopulation of low-mass G objects near Sgr A*” and was published in Astronomy and astrophysics.

It involved scientists from the University of Cologne, Masaryk University in Brno (Czech Republic), Charles University in Prague (Czech Republic), the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn.

About 30 years ago, highly dynamic stars were discovered in the immediate vicinity of the supermassive black hole Sgr A* at the center of the Milky Way.

These stars, also known as S stars, orbit the supermassive black hole at several thousand kilometers per hour over several years. The stars are surprisingly young and their presence is puzzling, as popular theories suggest that only old and dim stars would be expected in the immediate vicinity of a supermassive black hole.

The technological advances that have occurred in recent decades and the long periods of observation of the galactic center with modern telescopes currently raise additional questions. In 2012, for example, an object was discovered that scientists assumed was a cloud of gas that was “sucked up” by a supermassive black hole.

Although this theory was not confirmed, it was not clear for a long time what kind of object it might be. In recent years, mounting evidence has shown that it could be a YSO surrounded by a dust cloud.

In addition to S stars, scientists are currently investigating a dozen objects in the immediate vicinity of a supermassive black hole that also have very similar properties. They found that the objects are even significantly younger than already known high-velocity stars.

“Interestingly, these YSOs show the same behavior as S-stars. This means that YSOs orbit the supermassive black hole at a speed of several thousand kilometers per hour within a few years,” explained Dr. Florian Peißker from the Institute of Astrophysics of the University of Cologne. and corresponding study author.

“The S stars were found to be surprisingly young. According to conventional theories, the additional presence of a stellar nursery composed of YSOs is completely unexpected,” added Dr. Peissker.

Moreover, this group of high-velocity objects consisting of YSO and S stars at first glance resembles a chaotic swarm of bees. However, in the same way, a swarm of bees has a pattern and regular formations, as do YSOs and S stars.

In this way, the scientists were able to demonstrate that both YSO and S stars are arranged in a specific, organized manner in three-dimensional space.

“This means that there are specific preferred star constellations. The distribution of both star variants is disc-like, giving the impression that the supermassive black hole forces the stars to take an organized path,” Peißker said.