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Posted: Friday, October 5th, 2012 9:14 AM HST

Keck telescopes discover new star in Milky Way

By Ken Hupp - 67AM KPUA News

Scientists using the Keck Observatory atop Mauna Kea have found a second star in a remarkably fast orbit around the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. The star, known as S0-102, orbits the black hole in 11.5 years, a relative sprint that allows astronomers to study an entire orbit for perturbations that offer clues to the black hole’s structure. Before this discovery, astronomers knew of only one star near the black hole with a very short orbit: S0-2, which completes a circuit in 16 years. Both are in the constellation Sagittarius. UCLA physicist Andrea Ghez said the finding, published today in the journal Science, may help astronomers discover if Einstein was right in his fundamental prediction of how black holes warp space and time.