Observations from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope have identified a star, designated S301, completing an 8.7-year orbit around the Milky Way's central black hole at a peak speed of 15,534 miles per second. The star reaches a minimum distance of 11.5 astronomical units from Sagittarius A*, which has an estimated mass of 4 million solar masses and lies approximately 26,000 light-years from Earth. Data were published in Nature after analysis of roughly 50 stellar orbits.