Scientists have discovered the fastest star “running away” from the Milky Way
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Scientists have discovered the star J0927, which is “running away” from the Milky Way with an amazing speed – 2285 kilometers per second. This is stated in a study published in the Open Journal of Astrophysics and available on arXiv. In total, scientists from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics discovered 4 new stars at once, which are flying away from the Milky Way at great speed. Among the runaway stars there are two record holders: the fastest J0927 and its “colleague” J1235, which develops a speed of 1694 kilometers per second. These heavenly bodies are the so-called hypervelocity stars, because their speed exceeds the speed of “departure” from the Milky Way. Photo: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Scientists note that these are already dead celestial bodies that are accelerated due to the explosion. Whenever a star explodes, the force of the detonation can hurl whatever is left of it into space at high speeds. For example, this can happen in a system consisting of two white dwarf stars. One star gravitationally pulls matter away from its “companion” and becomes more massive. However, if the second white dwarf has a significant surface layer of helium, then the opposite happens. When the helium layer reaches high enough pressure and heat, it will begin to rapidly turn into carbon. At this point, a thermonuclear explosion will occur, and the shock wave will cause a second detonation in the white dwarf’s core, creating a more powerful explosion. The speeds of these superfast stars exceed 1000 kilometers per second. At the same time, in order to leave the Milky Way, it is enough to fly at a speed of 550 kilometers per second, say scientists. Previously, scientists considered the fastest star to be a double white dwarf D6 with a speed of about 2,200 kilometers per second. Scientists add that there are even faster stars. For example, those revolving around the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. The fastest star is moving at a staggering 24,000 kilometers per second as it approaches the hole in its long elliptical orbit. Read also: Scientists saw for the first time how a star absorbs a planet. When can this happen to the Earth?
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