Astronomers Discover First Binary Star System Near Milky Way's Black Hole

The young star pair, dubbed D9, challenges assumptions about the extreme gravitational environment around Sagittarius A*.

A binary star system, named D9, has been discovered orbiting Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
This marks the first time a binary star system has been identified in such close proximity to a black hole, located in the densely packed S cluster of stars.
The stars in D9 are estimated to be 2.7 million years old and are expected to merge into a single star within the next million years due to the black hole's gravitational influence.
Researchers suggest the discovery could provide insights into how stars and systems form and survive in extreme gravitational environments.
The findings also raise speculation about the potential presence of exoplanets in similar systems, as young stars are often associated with planet formation.