Speedstar.Astronomers have discovered a star so speedy that it will eventually leave the Milky Way Milky Way, the galaxy of which the sun and solar system are a part, seen as a broad band of light arching across the night sky from horizon to horizon; if not blocked by the horizon, it would be seen as a circle around the entire sky. and venture into the void of intergalactic space intergalactic space See under space. Noun 1. intergalactic space - the space between galaxies; "the Milky Way travels through intergalactic space" . Using the Multiple Mirror Observatory in Tucson, Ariz., researchers measured the velocity of the star by recording the shift of its light toward longer, redder wavelengths. Traveling the distance between Cleveland and New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. each second, the star is moving twice as fast as the velocity required to escape the Milky Way's gravity. Warren Brown of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It consists of the Harvard College Observatory and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. The Center is located at 60 Garden Street. in Cambridge, Mass., and his colleagues will report their findings on the star, cataloged as SDSS SDSS Sloan Digital Sky Survey SDSS Spatial Decision Support System SDSS Stability and Ductility of Steel Structures SDSS Standard Defence Supply System (Australia) SDSS Server Display and Script Services J090745.0+24507, in an upcoming Astrophysical Journal Letters. The star's speed and direction--almost straight out from the galaxy's center--suggest that the star once had a partner, and that the pair passed near the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way's core. In this scenario, the companion was swallowed by the black hole in a way that propelled the other star toward the abyss, the team proposes.--R.C. |
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