A supermassive black hole located at the centre of our Milky Way galaxy is called the Sagittarius A* (abbreviated as Sgr A*). A groundbreaking research performed by Northwestern University, US has revealed that some stars orbiting Sagittarius A appear youthful. This happens despite their ancient ages.
Researchers have pointed out that they eat or merge with their neighbouring stars and manage to appear youthful. The astrophysicists have reached this conclusion by tracing the violent journeys of 1,000 simulated stars orbiting the Sagittarius A. As per the researchers, the stars orbiting the supermassive black hole are so densely packed the region commonly experiences brutal stellar collisions. The new research concludes that collision survivors can lose mass by simulating the effects of these intense collisions. Following this they become stripped-down, low-mass stars or can combine with other stars to become huge and rejuvenated in appearance.
In an interview with Northwestern University’s news portal, Sanaea C Rose, who led this research shed more light on this topic. Rose said the region around the central black hole is dense with stars moving at extremely high speeds. “According to her, it’s a bit like running through an extensively crowded subway station in New York City during rush hour. She further said, “If you aren’t colliding with other people, then you are passing very closely by them. For stars, these near collisions still cause them to interact gravitationally. We wanted to explore what these collisions and interactions mean for the stellar population and characterise their outcomes.”
The centre of the Milky Way galaxy is a strange and wild place. The gravitational pull of Sgr A* forces the stars to whip around their orbits at terrifying speeds. And the sheer number of stars packed into the galaxy’s centre is more than a million. The densely packed cluster combined with the lightning-fast speeds results in a high-speed demolition. In the innermost area — within 0.1 parsecs of the black hole- few stars escape unscathed.
A parsec is a unit used to define distances between stars and galaxies. A black hole is so dense that gravity just beneath its surface, the event horizon, is strong enough that nothing can escape, not even light.
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