Young stars lead solitary lives at Milky Way's center.

A 10-year survey using the W. M. Keck Observatory has found that young, massive main-sequence stars living closest to the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way have no stellar companions. The S-stars, which are only about six million years old, are all single, which is surprising given that stars at this age and mass usually spend their childhood years paired with a twin in a binary system. The researchers suggest that the black hole's powerful influence causes binary star systems to either merge or become disrupted, where a companion star gets kicked out from the region.