Zooming in on the heart of the Milky Way

This Zoom video sequence starts with a broad view of the Milky Way. We then dive into the dusty central region to look closer. A 4-million solar mass black hole lurks, surrounded by a swarm of stars orbiting rapidly. We first see the stars in motion, thanks to 26 years of data from ESO's telescopes. We then see an even closer view of one of the stars, S2, passing very close to the black hole in May 2018. The final part shows a simulation of the motions of the stars.