A single origin story for the Milky Way's most mysterious stars
Article excerpt
Lurking at the heart of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) is a supermassive black hole four million times the mass of the sun, surrounded by a puzzling collection of young, massive stars whose orbits have long defied explanation. Astronomers have proposed various competing theories to account for these stars, but none has been able to explain all of them together.
This image by ESA’s (European Space Agency) Euclid (with color added using ground-based images) provides an earlier snapshot of a region of our galaxy that NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will repeatedly observe during the upcoming years.
ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, CFHT, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre and E. Bertin (CEA Paris-Saclay)
Euclid, an ESA (European Space Agency) mission with NASA contributions, took a new look at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy, seen in this image released on June 24, 2026. This observation overlaps with a region scientists will observe with NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, launching later this summer. This sneak peek gives astronomers a major jumpstart on a core Roman survey, helping scientists learn more than they could from either telescope alone.
Read more about Euclid and what Roman will see.
Image credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, CFHT, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre and E. Bertin (CEA Paris-Saclay)