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Deep Field
A Space Daily column

Deep Field

Astronomy and cosmology

Deep Field covers astronomy and cosmology. Telescopes and what they find, planets near and far, and the strange physics of the deep universe, traced back to the journal papers and observatory data behind the headlines.

Science & Engineering

Star whipping around black hole at 8 percent light speed may reveal its spin

S301 turned up as a smudge in a reconstructed image in 2023 and was then found again in archived pointings from 2021 and 2017. No spin has been measured. The decade-long timeline comes from a simulated dataset running to 2035, one assuming a radial velocity this star has never yielded and an astrometric precision the authors describe as the expected final performance of their upgraded instrument.