Superfast star could be following the lead of a black hole’s spin

Physicists at Germany's Max Planck Institute observed a star called S301 accelerating to over 15,500 miles per second, about 8% of light speed, as it swings close to Sagittarius A, the Milky Way's central supermassive black hole, in a study published in Nature.

The team used the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope Interferometer to track S301's 8.7-year orbit, hoping its motion offers indirect evidence that Sagittarius A rotates, a property long assumed but never directly confirmed for this black hole.

Researchers say pinning down the spin could reveal how the dormant black hole was fed in the past and how it relates to the broader formation of the Milky Way, with further precision measurements planned.

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