Scientists discover first binary star system near Milky Way's supermassive black hole, defying prior beliefs.
Scientists have found a pair of stars, named D9, orbiting each other near the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, marking the first discovery of a binary star system in such a location. The stars, approximately 2.7 million years old, are in a precarious balance near the black hole's strong gravity, potentially merging into one star within a million years. This discovery, detailed in Nature Communications, challenges previous beliefs that extreme gravitational forces would prevent binary star systems from forming near supermassive black holes.
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