S62 (star)

{{short description|Star orbiting close to the supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way}}

{{Starbox begin

| name = S62

}}

{{Starbox observe

| epoch = J2000

| constell = Sagittarius

| pronounce =

| ra = {{RA|17|45|40.036}}{{cite simbad|title=Sgr A*|accessdate=2021-08-23}}

| dec = {{DEC|-29|00|28.17}}

| appmag_v =

}}

{{Starbox detail

| source =

| mass = 6.1

| mass_mj =

| radius =

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| radius_km =

| luminosity =

| luminosity_bolometric =

| luminosity_visual =

| habitable_inner =

| habitable_outer =

| gravity =

| temperature =

| metal =

| metal_fe =

| rotation =

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| age =

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}}

{{Starbox reference

| Simbad = %5BEG97%5D+S62

}}

{{Starbox end}}

S62 is a star in the cluster surrounding Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way. S62 was initially thought to orbit extremely close to Sgr A*, with a period of 9.9 years and a closest approach of only {{convert|16|AU|km|sigfig=2|lk=in|abbr=out}}, less than the distance between Uranus and the Sun. This would have put it at just 215 times the Schwarzschild radius of Sgr A* (the Schwarzschild radius of Sgr A* is approximately 0.082 AU, or 12 million km).{{cite journal|doi= 10.3847/1538-4357/ab9c1c|title= S62 and S4711: Indications of a Population of Faint Fast-moving Stars inside the S2 Orbit. S4711 on a 7.6 yr Orbit around Sgr A*|year= 2020|last1= Peißker|first1= Florian|last2= Eckart|first2= Andreas|last3= Zajaček|first3= Michal|last4= Ali|first4= Basel|last5= Parsa|first5= Marzieh|journal= The Astrophysical Journal|volume= 899|issue= 1|page= 50|arxiv= 2008.04764|bibcode= 2020ApJ...899...50P|s2cid= 221095771|doi-access= free}}{{cite journal |last1=Peissker |first1=Florian |last2=Eckart |first2=Andreas |last3=Parsa |first3=Marzieh |title=S62 on a 9.9 year orbit around SgrA* |journal=The Astrophysical Journal |date=January 2020 |volume=889 |issue=1 |page=61 |doi=10.3847/1538-4357/ab5afd |bibcode=2020ApJ...889...61P|arxiv=2002.02341|s2cid=211043784 |doi-access=free }}

However, later observations with the GRAVITY instrument of the Very Large Telescope observed S62 to be in an inconsistent position compared to the prediction from the original observations. The star was observed to be moving linearly, with no detected acceleration, indicating that it was not as close to the black hole as it appeared in the projection. The original, mistaken orbital reconstruction is consistent with an observation of the star S29 having been mistaken for S62.{{cite journal|author=GRAVITY Collaboration|title=Detection of faint stars near Sagittarius A* with GRAVITY|journal=Astronomy & Astrophysics|volume=645|date=2021|issn=0004-6361|doi=10.1051/0004-6361/202039544|doi-access=free|page=A127|url=https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/pdf/2021/01/aa39544-20.pdf|access-date=2024-12-29}}