S301 is a star in the Milky Way galaxy identified as the fastest-moving star recorded on a secure orbit

S301 is a star in the Milky Way galaxy identified as the fastest-moving star recorded on a secure orbit

¨     S301 is a star in the Milky Way galaxy identified as the fastest-moving star recorded on a secure orbit.

¨     The discovery was announced on 19 August 2026 in a study published in Nature.

¨     S301 reaches a maximum speed of about 15,500 miles per second or 25,000 km per second.

¨     This speed is approximately 8% of the speed of light.

¨     S301 follows a highly elliptical orbit around Sagittarius A*.

¨     Sagittarius A* is the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way.

¨     S301 takes about 8.7 years to complete one orbit around Sagittarius A*.

¨     At its closest approach, S301 comes within about 12 astronomical units (AU) of Sagittarius A*.

¨     12 AU is approximately 1.8 billion kilometres.

¨     Sagittarius A* has a mass of about 4.3 million times the mass of the Sun.

¨     The study used the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI).

¨     The observations were conducted at the Paranal Observatory in Chile.

¨     Researchers examined archival data of S301 dating back to 2017.

¨     The international research team was led by K. Abd El Dayem of the Paris Observatory.

¨     The team also included Felix Mang and Stefan Gillessen of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics.

¨     S301’s extreme speed is associated with its highly elliptical orbit and its close passage through the intense gravitational field of Sagittarius A.