star three times bigger than the sun traveling at over 1.5 million mph

Dexsal · Feb 9, 2005, 07:28 AM

A star three times bigger than the sun has been seen fleeing our galaxy at over 1.5 million mph, according to astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

The gravitational pull of a black hole thought to exist there is likely responsible for the extreme velocity of the star, swinging it around the center of the Milky Way. A companion star may once have traveled with the speeding star and contributed to its velocity before being trapped by the black hole.

The first-of-its-kind finding not only confirms an earlier theory about the existence of such speeding stars, but also reinforces the notion that the Milky Way spins around a black hole, said Warren Brown, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and a member of the team that discovered the star.

"It's a hypothesis on our part, but there's no other good way of explaining a star moving this fast," said Brown. "The only way to get velocity that high on a star is you have to interact with something more extreme, like a black hole."

The star is currently 180,000 light years from Earth. Based on its trajectory, the astronomers believe it will exit the Milky Way and scream through miles of empty space until it burns out.

"The space between galaxies is extremely empty," said Brown. "It will have a nice view of the Milky Way for a while. At some point, the night sky from that star would look like a couple big galaxies. But everything else would be pure black."

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Callandor · Feb 9, 2005, 07:42 AM

Wow.

halocarbon · Feb 9, 2005, 08:31 AM

man thats cool, 180,000 light years, that means this galaxy SUper duper huge.
I once heard that are like more than one trillion stars in each galaxy and I wondered how Big this galaxy is, now I get the rough Idea of the size.

solar_flare · Feb 9, 2005, 09:52 AM

cool man...........even i havent heard of such shit like that man

Judas · Feb 9, 2005, 02:41 PM

the Milkyway is a Super Cluster Galaxy.... It a huge one... i think it estimated 250-300,000 light years in diameter.... Unknown light years in depth

Normal Cluster galaxys are usually no larger then 100,000 light year in diameter... The largest one they have found so far they think is nearly 700,000 or better... absalutely huge...

and a trillion stars is usually stated for the normal cluster galaxies..

and yet there are so many people that say that we are alone..

riles9262 · Feb 9, 2005, 02:49 PM

Crazy stuff man.

Ubergrendle · Feb 9, 2005, 03:33 PM

paraphrasing Douglas Nile Adams...

"The fact of the matter is that the human brain is incapable of conceptualizing interstellar distances."

I had a science teacher once explain to me how big space was. Basically, it was take a gymnasium and place a record in the centre. Okay, that's the sun. Now, take a green pea and place it against the far left wall. That's the earth and its orbit. Now, alpha centauri is the next closest star system. We live in Toronto. Alpha Centauri is in Montreal....

As for alien species, yes space is big, but the more you understand physical sciences and chemistry the better you'll understand how remote the chances of 'life' are... Star Trek gobbledy gook like "silicon based life forms" or "life forms or pure energy" are so completely idiotic that Lord of the Rings has more credibility as factual history.

Dexsal · Feb 10, 2005, 03:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ubergrendle

paraphrasing Douglas Nile Adams...

"The fact of the matter is that the human brain is incapable of conceptualizing interstellar distances."

I had a science teacher once explain to me how big space was. Basically, it was take a gymnasium and place a record in the centre. Okay, that's the sun. Now, take a green pea and place it against the far left wall. That's the earth and its orbit. Now, alpha centauri is the next closest star system. We live in Toronto. Alpha Centauri is in Montreal....

As for alien species, yes space is big, but the more you understand physical sciences and chemistry the better you'll understand how remote the chances of 'life' are... Star Trek gobbledy gook like "silicon based life forms" or "life forms or pure energy" are so completely idiotic that Lord of the Rings has more credibility as factual history.

My Own Theory on the this is i Believe Space is Emptyness Endlness in form. The Possibititys for Life is Possibile,But i known Dont Konwn

Ubergrendle · Feb 10, 2005, 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dexsal

My Own Theory on the this is i Believe Space is Emptyness Endlness in form. The Possibititys for Life is Possibile,But i known Dont Konwn

Oh I agree, in fact I think there is 'life' elsewhere in the universe as well. However, several factors are limiting this from having any relevance.

#1. Interstellar distances. As it stands is an impossibility for anything with physical substance to approach light speed. Theoretically an ion-propulsion drive could be made which would make travel to Alpha Centauri possible within one human generation...but we already know Alpha Centauri is a sparse galaxy anyways. There's some good thinking about the amounts of energy needed to travel instellar distances and to do anything 'meaningful' on a universal scale... look at wikipedia for some interesting stuff.

#2. Interstellar time. Human civilisation figured out fire about 40,000 years ago. Writing @ 10,000 years ago...maybe. Laws of gravity? 250 years ago. We are such an insignificant blip on the timeline of earth, let alone the universe. ~MILLIONS~ of intelligent civilisations may have started, lived for millenia, then died out and we just weren't around to see it. And given the challenges of #1, its unlikely we would be aware of their presence no matter how hard we look.

Some other 'intelligent life' theories that you should read about:

The Fermi Paradox
Carbon Chauvinism (which I strongly believe)

Kardashev Scale (for measuring technological achievement)

swimtech · Feb 10, 2005, 12:37 PM

I just love this stuff and don't get the chance to keep up with it as much as I used to. Very cool finding, especially the perspective that the night sky from a planet rotating around that star would be basically starless.

Son_of_Thunder · Feb 10, 2005, 01:58 PM

wait a second, it's 180,000 light years from earth right? so then, doesn't that mean that it was streaking by the place we're seeing streak by 180,000 years ago? isn't this star probably already burned out somewhere outside of our galaxy?

mike2h · Feb 10, 2005, 02:02 PM

you would be correct.

swimtech · Feb 10, 2005, 05:19 PM

But consider that a star has a lifetime of several billion years, a couple hundred thousand years is just a blink in the lifetime of a star - well, maybe a long yawn...

mike2h · Feb 10, 2005, 06:33 PM

true. but i am also sure that what ever is causing it to travel that fast is greatly reducing its lifespan.
but without really knowing how old it is, life expectancy for that star type, the afforementioned travel effect we do not really know. even so i think youi are corect & that 180,000 yrs is a 'relatively small amount of time.
the concept of something that large traveling that fast is staggering. chances are very, very small but what if it was to hit another stellar mass?

swimtech · Feb 11, 2005, 08:35 AM

...greatly reducing its lifespan...

Indeed, I can imagine a body like that moving through the cosmos - with some gravitational and/or other forces acting upon the star that would strip material off it as it goes - makes for one fantastic comet (maybe)!!! Fascinating...

bug77 · Feb 11, 2005, 09:01 AM

Get real guys. A star is pulled by a black hole in the MIDDLE of the Milky Way, yet it LEAVES the galaxy? How come?

Ubergrendle · Feb 11, 2005, 09:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bug77

Get real guys. A star is pulled by a black hole in the MIDDLE of the Milky Way, yet it LEAVES the galaxy? How come?

Slingshot effect. gravitational pull isn't strong enough to completely suck in the passing star, but puts enough 'english on the star to send it spinning off in another direction. At least that's one possibility how it started moving so quickly...