Two stars may be orbiting each other near a supermassive black hole in our Milky Way galaxy

NEW YORK (AP) — Scientists have spotted what appear to be two stars whipping around each other near the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

Nearly every large galaxy has a supermassive black hole at its heart. The one in the middle of the Milky Way, called Sagittarius A (with an asterisk denoting star), is about 4 million times more massive than our sun and is relatively quiet, occasionally swallowing gas or dust that comes its way.

Scientists know stars can form near and even orbit these black hole behemoths, but they’ve never seen a pair of stars survive so close by.

The research was published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.

https://apnews.com/article/milky-way-black-hole-binary-star-system-f6b6bdc24742f7bb1fe4dd50ba219aab