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Astronomers detect fastest known star in Milky Way

Star’s extreme proximity to Sagittarius A* means it could open new window onto black hole’s fundamental properties Astronomers have detected the fastest known star in the Milky Way, hurtling around the supermassive black hole at the heart of the galaxy. The star, called S301, travels at about 25,000km (15,500 miles) per second, 100,000 times faster than a commercial plane. It is also the closest known star to the Mil

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Ledger record
#743
First seen
19 Aug 2026, 16:16 UTC
Last checked
20 Aug 2026, 05:47 UTC
Version history
3 versions
Current fingerprint
c6da0a6398be...1f1143
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Publisher layer

Recorded article metadata

Publisher
The Guardian
Country
England / United Kingdom
Source published
19 Aug 2026, 16:00 UTC
Source updated
No update timestamp supplied
Byline
Hannah Devlin science correspondent
Section
Astronomy
Source-supplied excerpt
Star’s extreme proximity to Sagittarius A* means it could open new window onto black hole’s fundamental properties Astronomers have detected the fastest known star in the Milky Way, hurtling around the supermassive black hole at the heart of the galaxy. The star, called S301, travels at about 25,000km (15,500 miles) per second, 100,000 times faster than a commercial plane. It is also the closest known star to the Mil
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Observed version timeline

  1. 3
    Revision observed

    Astronomers detect fastest known star in Milky Way

    Star’s extreme proximity to Sagittarius A* means it could open new window onto black hole’s fundamental properties Astronomers have detected the fastest known star in the Milky Way, hurtling around the supermassive black hole at the heart of the galaxy. The star, called S301, travels at about 25,000km (15,500 miles) per second, 100,000 times faster than a commercial plane. It is also the closest known star to the Mil

    Changed fieldstags
    Version SHA-256
    c6da0a6398be...1f1143
    Capture SHA-256
    eca77abe956c...9a8dbe
  2. 2
    Revision observed

    Astronomers detect fastest known star in Milky Way

    Star’s extreme proximity to Sagittarius A* means it could open new window onto black hole’s fundamental properties Astronomers have detected the fastest known star in the Milky Way, hurtling around the supermassive black hole at the heart of the galaxy. The star, called S301, travels at about 25,000km (15,500 miles) per second, 100,000 times faster than a commercial plane. It is also the closest known star to the Mil

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    b98433e8981d...1a62ed
    Capture SHA-256
    4141964f352d...882012
  3. 1
    Initial capture

    Astronomers detect fastest known star in Milky Way

    Star’s extreme proximity to Sagittarius A* means it could open new window onto black hole’s fundamental properties Astronomers have detected the fastest known star in the Milky Way, hurtling around the supermassive black hole at the heart of the galaxy. The star, called S301, travels at around 25,000km per second, 100,000 times faster than a commercial plane. It is also the closest known star to the Milky Way’s centr

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    Version SHA-256
    02ced32512d5...4e11c2
    Capture SHA-256
    32b3e8043e5b...1f520f
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Interpretation layer

Labels with declared origins

Not an adjudication.

Publisher categories are copied from source metadata. Machine signals report observable wording or format and do not determine truth, intent, ethics, or wrongdoing.

  • machine content-type Reported news observable-rules-v1 / 70% rule confidence
  • publisher category Astronomy rss-category
  • publisher category Black holes rss-category
  • publisher category Science rss-category
  • publisher category Space rss-category
  • publisher category World news rss-category
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Public response layer

Reception snapshots

No reviewed reception capture yet.

Comment counts and samples remain absent until a lawful, source-specific capture method is reviewed. Absence is recorded instead of estimated.

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Evidence layer

Capture provenance

Capture ID
#141
Observed
19 Aug 2026, 16:46 UTC
HTTP result
200 / parsed
Raw payload
467,961 bytes, private gzip evidence
Collector
news-ledger/0.1
Public boundary
metadata and excerpt