Astronomers Just Found a Star Orbiting a Black Hole at 1 Percent the Speed of Light

Science Alert ^ | March 15, 2017 | Mike McRae

[C19fan]

Astronomers have just spotted a star whizzing around a vast black hole at about 2.5 times the distance between Earth and the Moon, and it takes only half an hour to complete one orbit.

To put that into perspective, it takes roughly 28 days for our Moon to do a single lap around our relatively tiny planet at speeds of 3,683 kilometres (2,288 miles) per hour, meaning this star is moving at some mind-boggling, break-neck speeds.

[ExGeeEye]

According to the movie “Interstellar”, a person visiting that star would experience two terrestrial years per orbit.

(That’s PDOOMA for entertainment purposes...)

[TheNext]

Across the USA, coast to coast, in one second.

[tumblindice]

"roadrunner"? Some kind of cartoon character?

[SgtHooper]

Yup! And it’s all theory anyway!

[right way right]

Cool, like one of those gumball funnels.
Can I have a quarter?

[Ozark Tom]

Roche limit? Soon will be a ring of gas circling the drain. Pull enough mass off the stellar core and watch the fireworks.

[alexander_busek]

We’re told that the star orbits the black hole at a distance of about half the lunar distance [...] the velocity of the star orbiting the black hole is about 1% of the speed of light - i.e., 1% of 300,000 meters km per second.

I believe that the article states "around a vast black hole at about 2.5 times the distance between Earth and the Moon."

Regards,