Outcast Star Zooms Out of Milky Way Galaxy ..

[ElsewheresDaughter]

NASA can we land bush on it quick?
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/space_outcast_dc



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An outcast star is zooming out of the Milky Way, the first ever seen escaping the galaxy, astronomers reported on Tuesday.

The star is heading for the emptiness of intergalactic space after being ejected from the heart of the Milky Way following a close encounter with a black hole, said Warren Brown, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.


The outcast is going so fast -- over 1.5 million mph -- that astronomers believe it was lobbed out of the galaxy by the tremendous force of a black hole thought to sit at the Milky Way's center. That speed is about twice the velocity needed to escape the galaxy's grip, Brown said by telephone.


"We have never before seen a star moving fast enough to completely escape the confines of our galaxy," he said. "We're tempted to call it the outcast star because it was forcefully tossed from its home."


The star used to be part of a binary pair, waltzing with its companion star close to the rim of the black hole. In this case, "close" is a relative term; the actual distance was probably about 50 times the 93 million-mile distance between Earth and the sun.


As the two stars twirled around each other, they were pulled faster and faster toward the edge of the black hole, one of those monster drains in space whose gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape once it is consumed.


While the companion star was captured by the black hole, the outcast continued on its whirling path around its edge.


Objects go faster the closer they get to black holes and this star was probably moving at extraordinary speed, perhaps as high as 20 million mph. That very speed, coupled with the speed of its twirling, sent the outcast zooming toward the edge of the Milky Way and beyond.


At this point, the outcast is about 180,000 light-years from Earth, in an outer region of the galaxy known as the halo. A light-year is about 6 trillion miles, the distance light travels in a year.

[Catshrink]

1. Way cool -- do you have a link?

love to put the little moran on that star!

[ElsewheresDaughter]

6. popps...inserted the link above......

sorry

[Richardo]

2. Black holes = 'drains in space'? Oh brother

Can we have some real science writers please? Or failing that, a little editing?

That whirring sound you hear is Carl Sagan achieving 10,000 rpms in his grave.

[Bill McBlueState]

3. that drawing's a little silly

Why does the star have gas escaping opposite its direction of motion? What, exactly, is pushing the gas that way? It's not like it's Scooby Doo running from a ghost.

[Stirk]

4. That's fascinating.

I wonder what it would've looked like to an outside observer when the star slingshotted around the black hole. What does a star moving at 20 million mph look like? I wonder if it would appear slower to someone outside the black hole's gravitational reach?

[G_j]

5. ejected from the heart of the Milky Way

"..heading for the emptiness of intergalactic space after being ejected from the heart of the Milky Way.."

yep, we have the ideal passenger for ya!

[Swede]

7. Who's leaving the galaxy?

[Skinner]

8. I had the same reaction.

When I saw the headline, I thought it said "OutKast star".

[Swede]

9. Hey Ya!!!!!

Hey, alright now
Alright now fellas, (YEAH!)
Now what's cooler than bein' cool?
(ICE COLD!) I can't hear ya'
I say what's cooler than bein' cool?
(ICE COLD!) whooo...

[DrGonzoLives]

10. Who knew our galaxy had a bouncer...

n/t

[Tux]

11. Bye

Have a nice trip.

Is it by chance this star is leaving this soon after the start of Bush's 2nd term?