Orbits of three stars very close to the centre of the Milky Way

This artist's impression video shows the orbits of three of the stars very close to the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. Analysis of data from ESO’s Very Large Telescope and other telescopes suggests that the orbits of these stars show the subtle effects predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity. There are hints that the orbit of the star called S2 is deviating slightly from the path calculated using classical physics.

The end of this sequence highlights the tiny change in the orbit due to the relativistic effects.

The position of the black hole is marked with a red cross.