Astronomy Picture of the Day

   [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                               2026 August 21
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    Time-Lapse of the Star S301 Orbiting the Black Hole in the Center of
                                 the Galaxy
      Image Credit & [2]License: [3]ESO/[4]GRAVITY Collaboration/[5]L.
                                  Calçada
     Text: [6]Cecilia Chirenti ([7]NASA [8]GSFC, [9]UMCP, [10]CRESST II)

   Explanation: What does it feel like to zoom around a spinning
   [11]supermassive black hole? The [12]featured video is an animation
   showing a time-lapse of 4 years of observations of the star S301
   orbiting [13]Sagittarius A*, the 4-million-solar-mass black hole in the
   center of our Galaxy. S301 was [14]discovered in 2023 with the [15]Very
   Large Telescope Interferometer of the [16]European Southern
   Observatory, located in the [17]Atacama Desert in Chile. Astronomers
   [18]recently found that S301 takes approximately 8.7 years to go around
   the black hole and reaches speeds of 25,000 km/s. It comes closer to
   the black hole than any [19]other stars detected before, at a distance
   similar to that from [20]Saturn to the [21]Sun. Because it comes [22]so
   close to Sagittarius A*, S301 could be used to directly measure how
   fast the black hole spins and test [23]Einstein's theory of [24]general
   relativity. According to the theory, a spinning black hole [25]drags
   the fabric of spacetime around itself, affecting the orbits of close-by
   objects.

                      Tomorrow's picture: 1,706 meteors
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    Authors & editors: [37]Robert Nemiroff ([38]MTU) & [39]Jerry Bonnell
                                 ([40]UMCP)
          NASA Official: Amber Straughn [41]Specific rights apply.
            [42]NASA Web Privacy, [43]Accessibility, [44]Notices;
                A service of: [45]ASD at [46]NASA / [47]GSFC,
                         [48]NASA Science Activation
                           & [49]Michigan Tech. U.

References

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  10. https://cresst2.umd.edu/
  11. https://science.nasa.gov/universe/black-holes/types/#supermassive
  12. https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso2612b/
  13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220513.html
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  20. https://science.nasa.gov/saturn/
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  22. https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1581285217236-a2355291f9c9
  23. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1921/einstein/biographical/
  24. https://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/blueshift/index.php/2015/11/25/100-years-of-general-relativity/
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  32. https://apod.com/feed.rss
  33. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html
  34. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html
  35. https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=260821
  36. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260822.html
  37. https://www.mtu.edu/physics/department/faculty/nemiroff/
  38. https://www.mtu.edu/physics/
  39. https://inspirehep.net/authors/1073087
  40. http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  41. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  42. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  43. https://www.nasa.gov/general/accessibility/
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  45. https://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/astrophysics/
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  49. http://www.mtu.edu/