Star pair D9 orbiting the supermassive black hole Sgr A* (artist's animation)

The animation shows how the two stars of the D9 star system orbit each other, enveloped in a cloud of gas and dust. The blue line indicates the orbit of the binary system around Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. D9 is the first ever binary star found near a supermassive black hole. Its formation and survival in this extreme environment means that black holes are not as destructive as we thought.

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