Keck: Thermonuclear Supernova Ejects Galaxy’s Fastest Star
Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 12:30 am
Thermonuclear Supernova Ejects Galaxy’s Fastest Star
W.M. Keck Observatory | 2015 Mar 05
Fastest Star in Our Galaxy Propelled by a Thermonuclear Supernova
University of Hawaii | Institute for Astronomy | 2015 Mar 05
The fastest unbound star in our Galaxy ejected by a thermonuclear supernova - S. Geier et al
W.M. Keck Observatory | 2015 Mar 05
Scientists using the W. M. Keck Observatory and Pan-STARRS1 telescopes on Hawaii have discovered a star that breaks the galactic speed record, traveling with a velocity of about 1,200 kilometers per second or 2.7 million miles per hour. This velocity is so high, the star will escape the gravity of our galaxy. In contrast to the other known unbound stars, the team showed that this compact star was ejected from an extremely tight binary by a thermonuclear supernova explosion. These results will be published in the March 6 issue of Science.Click to play embedded YouTube video.
Stars like the Sun are bound to our Galaxy and orbit its center with moderate velocities. Only a few so-called hypervelocity stars are known to travel with velocities so high that they are unbound, meaning they will not orbit the galaxy, but instead will escape its gravity to wander intergalactic space.
A close encounter with the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way is typically presumed the most plausible mechanism for kicking these stars out of the galaxy. ...
Fastest Star in Our Galaxy Propelled by a Thermonuclear Supernova
University of Hawaii | Institute for Astronomy | 2015 Mar 05
The fastest unbound star in our Galaxy ejected by a thermonuclear supernova - S. Geier et al
- Science 347(6226) 1126 (06 Mar 2015) DOI: 10.1126/science.1259063