Watch stars move around the Milky Way's supermassive black hole! Astronomers capture the deepest and sharpest images to date of the region around our central void

 Astronomers have revealed the 'deepest and sharpest images to date' of the region around our Milky Way galaxy's supermassive black hole.

The stunning new images, captured at various times earlier this year and released today by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), show several stars moving around their orbit of the black hole, Sagittarius A*.

ESO researchers used the Very Large Telescope (VLT), located in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, to take the shots, which zoom in 20 times more than what was possible before.  

They have also revealed a never-before-seen star close to the black hole, called S300 and provide the most precise estimate of the mass of the Milky Way's central black hole to date – 4.3 million times that of the Sun.  

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European Southern Observatory image taken on March 30, 2021 shows stars as little orange blobs around black hole Sagittarius A* at the centre of the Milky Way

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ESO images of stars around Sagittarius A* dated May 29 this year. S29 - the particularly bright star near the centre of this image, second from bottom - made its nearest approach to the black hole in late May 2021

ESO images captured by the Very Large Telescope (VLT) show the movement of stars at the centre of the Milky Way at various points earlier in the year

SAGITTARIUS A* HAS A LEAK! NASA'S HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE SPOTS A BLOWTORCH-LIKE JET IN OUR GALAXY'S CENTRAL VOID 

Our Milky Way's supermassive black hole has a 'leak', NASA scientists have revealed. 

The black hole, Sagittarius A*, periodically emits a 'blowtorch-like jet' out into space through this leak, perhaps once every several thousand years, NASA says. 

It's thought the black hole 'burps out' this jet every time it swallows something hefty like a gas cloud, and the jet then hits a huge hydrogen cloud.

Data was taken from two of NASA's telescopes – Hubble and Chandra – as well as from ALMA radio telescopes in Chile's Atacama Desert, and the Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico.   

Hubble hasn't photographed the jet yet, which is why it refers to it as a 'phantom jet'. 

Read more: The Milky Way's supermassive black hole 'has a leak', NASA says