ⓘ NASA - Unsplash

There are different types of stars in the universe, and some of them have surprising properties and behaviors. While some scientists have detected a rare brown dwarf orbiting a massive star, others have made a remarkable discovery.

Named S301, this celestial object is located near Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the center of the Milky Way. It was first detected in 2023 with the Gravity instrument on the Very Large Telescope. Recently, its motion has been tracked, revealing a highly elongated orbit. Given its behavior, researchers believe it was part of a binary system that came too close to the supermassive black hole, trapping S301 and ejecting its companion star.

But what makes S301 truly remarkable is its incredible speed. Indeed, it travels at about 15,500 miles per second, which is 8% of the speed of light. On this subject, Felix Mang, a Ph.D. student at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany, said in a statement: 

"What is special about this star is that it's orbiting Sagittarius A* on a very tight orbit, taking just 8.7 years to complete it, and is approaching the black hole at a mere 12 times the distance of Earth to the sun. That is unprecedented."

ⓘ ESO/GRAVITY

Furthermore, this star could be of great help to astronomers. In fact, they may be able to measure the rotation of Sagittarius A* for the first time, even though it will take about ten years to carry out these measurements.

Alexis Stegmann - Tech Writer - 731 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2025

I've been working in the field of web writing for several years, and I'm passionate about keeping readers up to date with the latest news on astronomy, technology, the world of video games and other exciting subjects. In particular, I've had the opportunity to work on a number of websites, which has enabled me to cover a wide range of subjects. In my personal life, I'm passionate about a wide range of subjects, including astronomy, video games, history and science. I'm also drawn to psychology, which is a subject that deserves greater documentation and recognition.