A strange star near Milky Way's black hole may have extra-galactic origin: Study

The Milky Way galaxy, home to Earth, the Sun and billions of other celestial bodies has a supermassive black hole. The black hole, with its unimaginably massive gravitational pull, holds the entire galaxy together, which in turn, revolves around the black hole (Sagittarius A*).

The closer a celestial body is to the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, more is its velocity in space as it revolves around the Sagittarius A* black hole. The immediate vicinity of the black hole is a massively chaotic place where stars are hurtling about at speeds of thousands of kilometres per second. These are called S-stars.

Scientists believed that since the vicinity of the black hole was such a chaotic place, the process of star formation can't take place and hence the S-stars must have come there from elsewhere.

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But a mysterious star near the black hole piqued scientific interest and a study has said that the star did not come there from other parts of the Milky Way galaxy but may have come from outside of the galaxy itself!

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A team of researchers, led by astrophysicist Shogo Nishiyama from Miyagi University of Education studied this S-star in question. They carefully observed the star, designated S-06, for eight years.

A spectrum emitted by a star gives clue about its chemical profile. This in turn leads to conclusions about the star's age. Older stars tend to have less amount of heavy elements.

The team of scientists, as reported by ScienceAlert, found that S-06 was 10 billion years old based on analysis of its spectrum.

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It is reportedly held by scientists that S-stars generally have similar chemical profile. But the chemical profile of S-06 was found to be different than other S-stars near the centre of the Milky Way.

Not only this. The chemical profile suggests that S-06 may have come from outside Milky Way galaxy.

Our galaxy has devoured many smaller galaxies along the way during its life. But a star from such a galaxy would find its way to the absolute centre, is something that's interesting.

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More research however, is needed to conclusively confirm the possibility that S-06 has extra-galactic origin.

The study, as reported by ScienceAlert, has been published in Proceedings of the Japan Academy, Series B.

(With inputs from agencies)