Research by an international team led by Shogo Nishiyama at Miyagi University shows that some of the stars closely circling the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy may have come from further away than previously thought, completely outside the Milky Way.
A star near the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy originated outside the galaxy, according to a new study. This is the first time that a star of extragalactic origin has been discovered in the vicinity of a supermassive black hole.
Many stars are observed near the supermassive black hole named SagittariusA* at the center of our galaxy. But because of the black hole's strong gravity the immediate environment is too hard for stars to form near the black hole. All the observed stars were therefore formed elsewhere and migrated to the black hole. This begs the question, where the stars were created.
Research by an international team led by Shogo Nishiyama at Miyagi University shows that some of the stars may have come from further away than previously thought, completely outside the Milky Way. The team used the Subro Telescope for eight years to observe the star S0-6, which is just 0.04 light-years away from Sagittarius A * They determined that the age of S0-6 is about 10 billion years and its chemical composition is similar to stars found in small galaxies outside. to the Milky Way, such as the Small Magellanic Cloud and the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy.
The most likely theory that explains the composition of S0-6 is that it was formed in a small already extinct galaxy that surrounded the Milky Way and was absorbed. This is the first observational evidence suggesting that some of the stars around Sagittarius A* formed outside the galaxy. During its 10 billion year life, S0-6 has traveled more than 50,000 light-years from somewhere outside the Milky Way to the environment of Sagittarius A*. S0-6 almost certainly traveled much more than 50,000 light years, in a slow spiral motion to the center rather than a straight path.
There are still many questions, according to Nishiyama. "Did S0-6 really form outside the Milky Way galaxy? Does it have companions, or does it move alone? Through further research, we hope to solve the mysteries of stars close to the supermassive black hole."
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