"This let astronomers make hour-by-hour measurements as the S2 star made its latest flyby of Sagittarius A*.
They watched what happened as S2 approached the black hole, coming tantalizing close, cosmically speaking, at about 12 billion miles away. During this close encounter, S2 reached speeds of nearly 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) per second, which is equal to 2.7% the speed of light.
The ESO team compared these new data with previously collected data on S2 to understand how its light was altered by dipping into the intense gravitational field. This is how they confirmed that light emitted from the star becomes less energetic – drained if you will – due the pull of the black hole and shifts to a lower frequency."
http://www.astronomy.com/news/2018/...e-caught-sucking-energy-from-nearby-starlight
They watched what happened as S2 approached the black hole, coming tantalizing close, cosmically speaking, at about 12 billion miles away. During this close encounter, S2 reached speeds of nearly 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) per second, which is equal to 2.7% the speed of light.
The ESO team compared these new data with previously collected data on S2 to understand how its light was altered by dipping into the intense gravitational field. This is how they confirmed that light emitted from the star becomes less energetic – drained if you will – due the pull of the black hole and shifts to a lower frequency."
http://www.astronomy.com/news/2018/...e-caught-sucking-energy-from-nearby-starlight
