Scientists have discovered 11 small mass stars near the supermassive black hole. This neighborhood, as was previously thought, should not be, since this region should experience the gravitational impact of a black hole, and it should not be star-forming.
Observations carried out by the ALMA telescope showed that the objects are at a distance of 3 light years from the supermassive black hole known as Sagittarius A * (Sagittarius A *). In this region, the gravitational effect would have to break clouds of dust and gas before they could form stars. According to the ALMA data, discovered protostars – about 6 thousand years.
Sagittarius A * is in the center of our galaxy at a distance of 26 thousand light years from us. The mass of the black hole is estimated at 4 million solar masses. Previously, near this object, only massive young stars of about 6 million years old were found.