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Science Defense Space Astronomy Tech Energy Physics Newsletter Submissions About Sagittarius A, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way (Credit: NASA). Newly Discovered Object is So Close to the Milky Way’s Central Black Hole it’s Experiencing Warped Spacetime Christopher Plain · August 20, 2026 An international team of astronomers led by the Infrared/Submillimetre Group at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) has announced the discovery of a star so close to Sagittarius A* , the Milky Way’s centrally placed supermassive black hole , that it is experiencing warped spacetime . With a highly elliptical orbit around Sagittarius A* of only 8.7 years, the newly named S301 comes as close as Saturn does to our Sun during its nearest approach. The research team said this close approach makes it the star with the shortest recorded orbital period and the tightest ever observed in the galaxy’s center . Black Hole-Orbiting Star Experiencing Warped Spacetime In a statement emailed to The Debrief , Reinhard Genzel, Director at MPE and Nobel Laureate for Physics in 2020, noted that S301’s historically tight orbit around Sagittarius A* is ten times closer to the Galactic Center than “our previous best star.” The above image shows all known stars in the Galactic Center orbiting the central massive black hole Sgr A*. The central region is dominated by young, hot stars (blue), and a couple of cooler stars (orange/red). One of the cooler stars, S301, is approaching Sgr A* very closely, about the distance from the Sun to planet Saturn. Sgr A* itself is surrounded by hot plasma, the light of which is warped due to the black hole’s strong gravity (Credit: MPE). Along with that record, the team said the star’s tight orbit also moves it through a region of space where the black hole’s extreme gravitational pull “drags spacetime itself.” Genzel noted that “S301 probes spacetime in the Galactic Center,” a phenomenon that astrophysicists believe only occurs in the immediate vicinity of a massive, spinning object like a black hole . According to the MPE team, the evidence for this warped spacetime shows up in the star’s orbital path. Specifically, they said the star’s path “deviates significantly” from the path predicted by Newton’s classical theory of gravitation . “This is a clear sign of relativistic effects that occur only in the vicinity of a massive, rotating black hole,” the researchers explained. Image of the Galactic Center in July 2025. The highly eccentric, tight orbit of S301 around Sgr A* (colored in white), and the orbits of five other stars in the Galactic Center are shown (Credit: MPE). The Physics Behind the Phenomenon To explain the evidence of warped spacetime, the MPE team said two scientific principles are at work. The first, called Schwarzschild Precession, occurs when space itself is curved around a central mass. In the case of S301, the object creating an extended field of warped spacetime around it is the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*. “The Schwarzschild solution of general relativity remains a useful approximation to explain the orbit of S2, even for a spinning black hole at the center of the Galaxy,” they explained. This image shows the path of the S301 star around Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. The diamonds show measurements performed with the GRAVITY instrument at ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). The size of Neptune’s orbit is shown as a reference. Credit: MPE The second relativistic mechanism causing the warped spacetime drag on S301 is called the Lense-Thirring effect. Specifically, the massive black hole exerts a separate force from Schwarzschild Precession due to its rotation. “A rotating mass, in a sense, drags the surrounding space-time along with it – much like a rotating spoon setting the water in a cup in motion,” the MPE team explained. Unlike the more powerful effect of gravity, the team said the effect on the star caused by the rotation of Sagittarius A* is “significantly weaker and therefore more difficult to detect.” This rarity marks the team’s observation of the effect, another historic first. “S301 is the first star to orbit directly in the region around Sagittarius A* where the frame-dragging effect is extreme,” explained Felix Mang, PhD student at MPE and corresponding author of the study. “We’re not just measuring spacetime curvature; we are measuring how it gets distorted by the rotation of the black hole itself. That is unique.” “Explore Strange New Worlds, Seek Out New Physics, and See What Nobody Has Seen Before” Astronomers first identified S301 in spring 2023 using the GRAVITY instrument at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile. Unlike conventional observatories, GRAVITY observes targets simultaneously with four 8-meter telescopes. The light is then combined into a single image, resulting in an angular resolution 40 times sharper than images captured by a single telescope . See Also NASA’s Updated Transition Plan for the International Space Station Includes Crashing it Into the Pacific “GRAVITY’s exceptional resolution makes it possible to observe stars at the center of the Milky Way on scales comparable to the size of our solar system, even when they are extremely faint,” the MPE team explained, adding that “this unprecedented combination of precision and sensitivity has made it possible to detect S301, a new and extremely faint star.” ESO’s Very Large Telescope in front of the Galactic Center in the Milky Way. Four powerful lasers are shot into the night sky to remove disturbances of the atmosphere. These lasers are the Laser Guide Star (LGS) system as part of the GRAVITY+ project, the upgrade of GRAVITY. Credit: MPE When discussing the next steps in the investigation of the star experiencing warped spacetime, the MPE team noted that a recent upgrade to the facility, GRAVITY+, which includes a new adaptive optics system and laser guide stars, “has increased the instrument’s sensitivity by a factor of 10 to 100.” Genzel said the upgrade will lead to even more discoveries in a relatively short time. “Within the next decade, we will measure the black hole’s rotation directly — a milestone for general relativity,” The researcher explained. Frank Eisenhauer, director at MPE and Principal Investigator of the GRAVITY and GRAVITY+ projects, said the opportunity to discover “the beauty of nature” in the form of S301 “is truly a dream come true.” The researcher also pointed to future observations and the new tools that will make them possible, while seemingly harkening back to a popular 1960s TV show introduction championing the exploration of space. “GRAVITY+ and the upcoming MICADO instrument, currently being developed in an international consortium led by MPE for the ESO Extremely Large Telescope [will help us] to explore strange new worlds, seek out new physics, and see what nobody has seen before.” The study “ Discovery of a star sensitive to the spin of Sagittarius A* ” was published in Nature . Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and has spent the last six years as Associate News Editor and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X , learn about his books at plainfiction.com , or email him at christopher@thedebrief.org . Previous Article Major Study Finds Hidden Order in the Psychedelic Brain That Challenges What We Thought About Psilocybin Next Article The Death of a Supercontinent May Have Formed the Grand Canyon Close to a Billion Years Earlier than Once Thought, New Study Reveals Related Posts Newly Discovered Object is So Close to the Milky Way’s Central Black Hole it’s Experiencing Warped Spacetime Astronomy Physics Space Max Planck eROSITA Team Releases the Most Comprehensive Census of the High-Energy Universe Ever Assembled Astronomy Breaking News Physics NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope May Have Just Unraveled a Longstanding Black Hole Mystery Astronomy Breaking News Astronomers Observing a Supermassive Black Hole Just Had an Unexpected UFO Sighting Astronomy Breaking News Science © Copyright 2026 The Debrief. All Rights Reserved. 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