Black holes turned out to be safer than scientists thought – stars and planets can stably “live” next to them

The location of supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies appears to be destructive to everything nearby. However, astronomers have made a discovery that reduces the threat posed by such objects. For the first time, a double star system was discovered near the central black hole, which turned out to be unaffected by the dangerous proximity. It can be compared to an oasis of calm next to a seething whirlpool. All that remains is to find planets there – and it’s only a matter of time.

Image source: ESO

The discovery, as often happens, happened by accident. A new class of objects, called G-objects, has been identified in the center of the Milky Way. A total of six such objects were discovered, the first of which was discovered in 2005. It is assumed that these are stars surrounded by a dense cloud of gas and dust. In appearance they resemble gas and dust clouds, but their gravitational behavior corresponds to stars. All six objects interact with the supermassive black hole Sgr A* (Sagittarius A*) at the center of our galaxy. In the process of studying these objects, scientists accidentally discovered the D9 star system, which turned out to be double.

Apparently, the binary star system was able to evolve even under conditions of strong gravitational interaction with a supermassive black hole. It rotates around Sgr A* at an incredible speed, but this does not prevent it from developing in the same way as stars on the periphery of the galaxy. This discovery gives hope to find in the center of the galaxy – in a cluster of objects with intense interactions – not only stable stars, but also planetary systems.

«Black holes are not as destructive as we thought. It seems plausible that discovering planets at the center of the galaxy is just a matter of time,” the scientists say.

However, astronomers warn that such “stable” relationships may be fleeting in the lifetime of stars. The discovered binary system is still young – its age is only 2.7 million years. By comparison, dinosaurs lived on Earth longer than these stars. It is possible that scientists were simply lucky to find them in a stable state. Even if this is the case, the discovery hints that there may be more life in the centers of galaxies in every sense of the word. Therefore, new observations and studies of such areas of space are needed.