Star Spotted Speeding Near Black Hole at Centre of Milky Way (theguardian.com)

Astronomers have observed a star speeding close to the massive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way for the first time. From a report: The observations, made using the Very Large Telescope in Chile, tracked a star called S2 as it passed through the extreme gravitational field at the heart of our galaxy. As the star approached its nearest point to the black hole on 19 May, it was accelerated to mind-boggling speeds, causing it to be subject to effects predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity. Astronomers had been tracking the star and preparing to make the observations for the past 16 years -- the time taken for the star to complete a single elliptical orbit of the black hole. "We have been preparing intensely for this event over several years, as we wanted to make the most of this unique opportunity to observe general relativistic effects," said Reinhard Genzel of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Garching, Germany, who led the international team. The findings can be found here.

Comments

Wow. Actual news for nerds.

[gordguide]

I don't know what is going on here, somehow /. has managed to post a topic that is something it's members might actually be interested in, instead of squabble-bait. Mods must be off their meds today.

Re:Where are the traffic cops when you need them?

[Anonymous Coward]

You realize, this happened 25,000 years ago!

Re: Question... apk

[rpresser]

There is a maximum rate at which a black hole is allowed to rotate, and such a black hole is not a torus.
https://astronomy.stackexchang...

What's interesting in the sky with a small telesco

[raymorris]

Speaking of astronomy being interesting to some here at Slashdot, perhaps some here could suggest things in astronomy that would be interesting to look at with a small telescope?

My young daughter is very interested in astronomy so I picked up a 114mm reflector telescope off Craigslist. So far we've seen Saturn's rings (which look like one big ring from our location in the suburbs, with that scope), and seen the discs of the other planets.

There's a lot of light pollution here in the Dallas suburbs and apparently we have to drive an at least an hour to find significantly darker skies. What else can we look at other than the overall color of the planets, and the banding on Jupiter? Any other objects worth seeing?

--

A funny story related to this. When I took her outside to look at Saturn, she pointed to a different part of the sky and said "daddy I see Jupiter!" She just turned four years old. How the heck a barely four year old recognizes Jupiter with no assistance, I have no idea. I had to use my sky chart app to confirm she was correct, she had indeed correctly identified Jupiter.

 

Re:What's interesting in the sky with a small tele

[Geoffrey.landis]

Don't overlook the moon-- for somebody new to astronomy, the moon is AMAZING.

Pro tip: DON'T look at the moon when it's full-- the full-on sunlight washes out all the contrast. Look at it first or second quarter.

This is a great season to spot planets-- you can get Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn in an evening without even staying up very late. Mars, unfortunately, although it's unusually close and bright right now, is in the middle of a hellacious dust storm, so you won't see much features. You should be able to spot the polar cap, though.

Pro tip: you don't have to wait for sunset to observe Venus. It's actually better to observe it with some skylight, because it's so bright.

Other than that, if there's light pollution you're not going to seem much in the way of nebulae, but double stars are still interesting. Mizar-- the star at the bend of the Big Dipper-- is easy to find. Some stars where the two components are different colors are interesting. Check this site: https://www.skyandtelescope.co...