Bina Patel

Something massive hides at the center of the Milky Way — four million times heavier than the Sun. The star S2, like a racer on a steep curve, loops around this object every sixteen years in an elongated orbit, accelerating to 7650 kilometers per second. By tracking exactly how it moves, astronomers are trying to figure out what that 'something' is.

Black holes are famous for their dark silhouette against a bright glow. It's not actually a shadow, but severely bent light curving around the object. Yet the cosmos also hosts impostors — ultra-dense bodies without an event horizon that warp light in their own distinct way. These distortions can reveal the ruse.