S62 (star)

S62

Observation data Epoch J2000      Equinox J2000
Constellation	Sagittarius
Right ascension	17^h 45^m 40.036^s[1]
Declination	−29° 00′ 28.17″[1]
Details
Mass	6.1[2] M☉
Database references
SIMBAD	data

S62 is a star in the cluster surrounding Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way. S62 was initially thought to orbit extremely close to Sgr A*, with a period of 9.9 years and a closest approach of only 16 astronomical units (2.4×10^9 km), less than the distance between Uranus and the Sun. This would have put it at just 215 times the Schwarzschild radius of Sgr A* (the Schwarzschild radius of Sgr A* is approximately 0.082 AU, or 12 million km).[2][3]

However, later observations with the GRAVITY instrument of the Very Large Telescope observed S62 to be in an inconsistent position compared to the prediction from the original observations. The star was observed to be moving linearly, with no detected acceleration, indicating that it not as close to the black hole as it appears in projection. The original, mistaken orbital reconstruction is consistent with an observation of the star S29 having been mistaken for S62.[4]

References

1. "Sgr A*". SIMBAD. Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg. Retrieved 2021-08-23.
2. Peißker, Florian; Eckart, Andreas; Zajaček, Michal; Ali, Basel; Parsa, Marzieh (2020). "S62 and S4711: Indications of a Population of Faint Fast-moving Stars inside the S2 Orbit. S4711 on a 7.6 yr Orbit around Sgr A*". The Astrophysical Journal. 899 (1): 50. arXiv:2008.04764. Bibcode:2020ApJ...899...50P. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab9c1c. S2CID 221095771.
3. Peissker, Florian; Eckart, Andreas; Parsa, Marzieh (January 2020). "S62 on a 9.9 year orbit around SgrA*". The Astrophysical Journal. 889 (1): 61. arXiv:2002.02341. Bibcode:2020ApJ...889...61P. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab5afd. S2CID 211043784.
4. GRAVITY Collaboration (2021). "Detection of faint stars near Sagittarius A* with GRAVITY" (PDF). Astronomy & Astrophysics. 645: A127. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202039544. ISSN 0004-6361. Retrieved 2024-12-29.