Hypersonic Revelation

A star speeding through space at 1.6 million miles per hour suggests the first evidence of a massive black hole nearby

Hypervelocity Star: Photo by ESO
Astronomers have finally made sense of the mystery of a speeding star first discovered in 2005. The star, HE 0437-5439, is known as a hypervelocity star because, well, it’s fast. It’s ripping through space at an estimated 1.6 million miles per hour.

Scientists know of only ten such stars speeding away from the Milky Way, but this one is unique because of both its elemental composition and its apparent age. Astronomers from the Carnegie Institution and Queen’s University in Belfast determined that the star originated in a nearby galaxy known as the Large Magellanic Cloud, and was probably spat out by a massive black hole.

This is exciting, the scientists say, because it’s the first evidence that there might be a massive black hole in that area. The next step will be finding it.

10 Comments

Comments

featherfoot

from blossom, tx

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if light travels so fast , and this is that many light YEARS away, why are we worring?

0 out of 3 people found this comment helpful
Nerdylatina
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Featherfoot - It has nothing to do with 'worry', it has all to do with learning and discovery.

:o)

2 out of 2 people found this comment helpful
featherfoot

from blossom, tx

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i understand that fully and i agree with it fully, but there is too much comotion to ''worry about it" right now in this age and time.

1 out of 2 people found this comment helpful
guruuswa
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we should worry coz if this thing goes fast enough it will crash into another black hole and ignite the galaxy...and only a select team of ex-marines lead by Morgan Freeman will be able to save us

1 out of 1 people found this comment helpful
danlvv
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dude, did you mean Gordan Freeman from the Half Life series? cause the name is Gordan, anyway it would be totally lagit if thats what you meant.

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DarkFx

from Winnipeg, Manitoba

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What does size matter anyways, Big black hole or not, you swap your hand through something less dense, its not going to be effected what-so-ever, molecules float by untouched. Black hole sucks us in, whats to worry the impact it would make wouldnt be of any concern, just take our galaxy to somewhere else to explore. Its about the precievable time.

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DarkFx

from Winnipeg, Manitoba

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What does size matter anyways, Big black hole or not, you swap your hand through something less dense, its not going to be effected what-so-ever, molecules float by untouched. Black hole sucks us in, whats to worry the impact it would make wouldnt be of any concern, just take our galaxy to somewhere else to explore. Its about the precievable time.

0 out of 0 people found this comment helpful
Novawork-Electronics
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Balckhole Nearby...another reason for NASA to spend billion of dollars tax money in space exploaration...

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kissjeffgoodbye
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but...what if it wasn't a star but a large world-ship like from Andromeda..lol

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Spaceheretic
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"Balckhole Nearby...another reason for NASA to spend billion of dollars tax money in space exploaration..." Funding hasn't change for Nasa since the seventies as far as inflation is concerned, the billions are spent keeping lazy people alive, trying to teach dumb kids, and policing the world. Maybe if we spent more on space exploration the lazy people would die, the dumb kids wouldn't be born, and we could stop policing the world and just focus on policing the planet or moon we decided to colonize.

0 out of 0 people found this comment helpful

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