<ul><li>Astronomers have discovered a binary star system known as D9, surprisingly close to the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* at the center of the Milky Way.</li><li>Binary stars are not expected to form or survive near black holes due to tidal forces, but the D9 system is young and estimated to merge into a single star within a million years.</li><li>The discovery of D9 was made using data from the Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph (ERIS) and the Spectrograph for INtegral Field Observations in the Near Infrared (SINFONI).</li><li>Finding binary stars near Sagittarius A* could provide insights into the formation of such systems in the vicinity of supermassive black holes.</li></ul>

A Binary Star Found Surprisingly Close to the Milky Way's Supermassive Black Hole

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