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Researchers have found that a piece of fleeing star shard is “pulled” out of the Milky Way at a speed of nearly two million mph after surviving a massive star explosion.
To put that in context, it’s about 1,000 times faster than a bullet.
The unusual metallic object is about a fifth the size of our own sun and is about 2,000 light years from Earth.
Experts believe this is one of the few fast-moving star races left behind by a supernova.
These are the remnants of massive white dwarf stars that have survived in pieces after a huge cosmic explosion.
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An unusual piece of “star burst” is “slingshot” out of the Milky Way at a speed of nearly two million mph after being left behind by a supernova. Pictured is an example of a supernova in the making – two stars approaching each other and some doom
The study, led by astronomers at Boston University, hopes the discovery of LP 40-365 will provide insight into other stars with similar catastrophic pasts.
“This star is moving so fast that it almost certainly leaves the galaxy … [it’s] moving at nearly two million miles an hour, ”said JJ Hermes, assistant professor of astronomy at the Boston University College of Arts and Sciences.
Her colleague Odelia Putterman said: “To have suffered a partial detonation and survive is very cool and unique, and it was only in the last few years that we started to think that this kind of star could exist.”
Putterman and Hermes analyzed data from the Hubble Space Telescope and NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Monitoring (TESS) satellite, which monitors the sky and collects luminous information about stars near and far.
By examining various types of light data from the two telescopes, the researchers and their collaborators discovered that the LP 40-365 is not only projected out of the galaxy, but that depending on the brightness patterns of the data, it rotates also on its release. .
‘The star is essentially thrown by the explosion, and we are [observing] its rotation when it comes out, ”Putterman said.
Researchers dug a little deeper and found that it rotated every nine hours.
All stars rotate – even our sun spins slowly on its axis every 27 days – but for a star fragment that survived a supernova, nine hours is considered relatively slow.
Supernovas occur when a white dwarf grows too big to support itself, ultimately triggering a cosmic burst of energy.
Finding the rate of rotation of a star like LP 40−365 after a supernova may give clues to the original two-star system from which it arose.
It is common in the universe for stars to come in close pairs, including white dwarfs, which are very dense star objects that form near the end of a star’s life.
In their study, the researchers detected the metallic star in data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey satellite, or “TESS” for short. An artist’s impression of TESS is shown
If one white dwarf gives too much mass to the other, the star it is thrown at can self-destruct, resulting in a supernova.
Supernovas are common and can occur in different ways, according to the researchers, but they are generally very difficult to see. This makes it difficult to know which star imploded and which star dumped too much mass on its star partner.
Based on the relatively slow spin rate of the LP 40-365, Hermes and Putterman believe that these are shrapnel from the star that self-destructs after receiving too much mass from its partner.
As the stars spun so fast and so tightly, the explosion catapulted both stars, and now only LP 40-365 is visible.
“They are very strange stars,” said Hermès. “Stars like LP 40-365 are not only among the fastest stars known to astronomers, but also the most metal-rich stars ever detected.
“Stars like our sun are made up of helium and hydrogen, but a star that has survived a supernova is mostly made up of metallic material, because what we are seeing are the byproducts of violent nuclear reactions that occur when ‘a star explodes. , which makes star bursts like this particularly fascinating to study. ‘
Putterman added, “By understanding what is going on with this particular star, we can begin to understand what is happening with many other similar stars from a similar situation.”
The new research is published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
SUPERNOVAE OCCUR WHEN A GIANT STAR EXPLODES
A supernova occurs when a star explodes, sending debris and particles into space.
A supernova only burns for a short time, but it can tell scientists a lot about how the universe began.
A type of supernova has shown scientists that we live in an expanding universe, which is growing at an ever increasing rate.
Scientists have also determined that supernovas play a key role in the distribution of elements in the universe.
In 1987, astronomers spotted a “titanic supernova” in a nearby galaxy blazing with the power of over 100 million suns (pictured)
There are two known types of supernova.
The first type occurs in binary star systems when one of the two stars, a white carbon-oxygen dwarf, steals matter from its companion star.
Eventually, the white dwarf accumulates too much material, causing the star to explode, resulting in a supernova.
The second type of supernova occurs at the end of a single star’s life.
As the star runs out of nuclear fuel, part of its mass drains into its core.
Eventually, the core is so heavy that it cannot support its own gravitational force, and the core collapses, causing another giant explosion.
Many of the elements found on Earth are made in the cores of stars and these elements travel to form new stars, planets, and all of the rest of the universe.
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