Fastest known star speeds around Milky Way’s black hole at 18 million mph


Astrophysicists have discovered the fastest known star which is racing around the black hole at the center of the Milky Way. The star, designated S4716, completes an orbit around the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) in just around four years. 

This means that the star is traveling at blisteringly fast speeds of around 18 million mph (29 million kph), or nearly 5,000 miles every second. During this rapid orbit of Sagittarius A*, which has an estimated diameter of 14.6 million miles (23.5 million kilometers), S4716 comes as close as 92 million miles (150 million km) to the supermassive black hole.





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