Far flung star travelling away from milky way
9 February 2005
by Richard
Conan-Davies
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Astronomers have discovered a star travelling a several million kilometres per hour speeding out of our milky way galaxy. Dr. Warren Brown of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who discovered this unusual star explained that "We have never before seen a star moving fast enough to completely escape the confines of our galaxy," It is thought that this "outcast" star could only occur if it had come close to the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way and then was flung back out. It gained enough speed to escape all the mass of the galaxy. Compare this with the 40200 km/h needed to escape earth's gravity. This star has a lonely trip ahead just flying through the emptiness of space. It may get caught by by another galaxy but not for a few 100 million years. |
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Related Links
Original news release from Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Nature &
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