Uploads from Dr. Becky

Currently Playing: The fastest star known #shorts

You are currently travelling at 514,000 miles per hour, at least the solar system is as it orbits the centre of the Milky Way. That's 230 kilometres per second. But if Earth was orbiting the newly discovered star S301 you'd be travelling at over 100 times faster, at 25,000 kilometres per second - that's 8% the speed of light.. And this star is the newest closest known star to the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. But it’s not getting torn apart, or sucked in. It’s on a stable orbit. And that is really, really good news for us astrophysicists. Because with this star we should be able to directly measure how fast the Milky Way’s black hole is spinning for the first time. Because: mass, spin, and charge, those are the only three properties that black holes have. And we’ve only ever directly measured one of them for the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. But all that is about to change. But why do we even care about a black hole’s spin? To find out why, check out my latest video over on YouTube, and follow along to find out more about how we know things about space, not just what we know. Video filmed on a Sony ⍺7 IV Video edited by Martino Gasparrini: martino.freelance@gmail.com Video produced by Marina Hui & Dr Becky Smethurst --- 📚 My book, "A Brief History of Black Holes", out NOW in hardback, paperback, e-book and audiobook (which I narrated myself!): http://lnk.to/DrBecky --- 👕 My merch, including JWST designs, are available here (with worldwide shipping!): https://dr-becky.teemill.com/ --- 🎧 Royal Astronomical Society Podcast that I co-host: podfollow.com/supermassive --- 🔔 Don't forget to subscribe and click the little bell icon to be notified when I post a new video! --- 👩🏽‍💻 I'm Dr. Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford. I love making videos about science with an unnatural level of enthusiasm. I like to focus on how we know things, not just what we know. And especially, the things we still don't know. If you've ever wondered about something in space and couldn't find an answer online - you can ask me! My day job is to do research into how supermassive black holes can affect the galaxies that they live in. In particular, I look at whether the energy output from the disk of material orbiting around a growing supermassive black hole can stop a galaxy from forming stars. http://drbecky.uk.com