Have you ever imagined that a black hole could be at the center of our galaxy? In fact, nearly EVERY galaxy has a black hole at its center! The one in the milky way galaxy is known as Sagittarius A*(yes, the asterisk is part of the name because the discovery was considered “exciting”). It is a supermassive black hole, with a mass slightly more than 4 million times that of the sun!

(Artistic depictions)

Sagittarius A* was discovered in 1974. An image of the black hole taken by the event horizon telescope was released in 2022. This is the second ever image of a black hole, with the first (of the M87 black hole) being released in 2019. This black hole is responsible for the existence of the milky way galaxy, and several stars have been observed to orbit it.