A mysterious star appeared in the center of the Milky Way
(ORDO NEWS) — An international team of astronomers has found confirmation of previously obtained data that there is a newborn star in the center of the Milky Way near a black hole.
The study was published in The Astrophysical Journal and is briefly described by Phys.org. A team of researchers have discovered a very young star in the early stages of its formation.
The object is located near the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A * (Sgr A *), which in turn is located in the very center of our galaxy.
In the new study, the scientists tested the preliminary data obtained by their predecessors. The observation confirmed the existence of a young massive object, dubbed X3a.
Calculations showed that the age of this star is only a few tens of thousands of years. By cosmic standards, she is a baby. This star turned out to be even younger than mankind.
The very fact of its appearance puzzled scientists. Theoretically, such a star cannot exist, since it is located very close to a supermassive black hole.
Astronomers have put forward the assumption that the star was originally formed in a dust cloud orbiting a giant black hole, and only after the first stage of its formation did it enter its current orbit.
It is believed that the vicinity of the black hole in the center of the Milky Way is an aggressive environment characterized by highly dynamic processes and hard x-ray and ultraviolet radiation.
The generally accepted theory is that such conditions prevent the formation of stars like our Sun, and that only very old stars can orbit a black star by “dynamic friction”.
However, a new study proves that the aggressive conditions and the proximity of the black hole do not interfere with the process of star formation.
Moreover, astrophysicists pulled out of the archives observational data 20 years ago. Then very young stars were already discovered in the immediate vicinity of Sagittarius A*.
However, that discovery was received with skepticism, many attributed it to the errors of observation instruments.
And now we have received accurate evidence of the existence of the newborn star X3a, which is 10 times larger and 15 times heavier than our Sun.
Its identification made it possible to introduce a new term into science: the appearance of very young stars very close to a supermassive black hole, scientists called the “paradox of youth.”
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