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Can Super-Fast Stars Unveil Dark Matter’s Secrets?
universetoday.com ^ | May 12, 2014 | Elizabeth Howell on

Posted on 05/12/2014 11:38:24 AM PDT by BenLurkin

A star was recently spotted speeding at 1.4 million miles an hour (2.2 million km/hr), which happened to be the closest and second-brightest of the so-called “hypervelocity” stars found so far.

...

LAMOST-HVS1 (as the object is called, after the Chinese Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope that discovered it) is about three times faster than most other stars found. It’s in a cluster of similar hypervelocity stars above the Milky Way’s disk and from its motion, scientists suspect it actually came from our galaxy’s center.

What’s interesting about the star, besides its pure speed, is it is travelling in a “dark matter” halo surrounding our galaxies, the astronomers said.

“The hypervelocity star tells us a lot about our galaxy – especially its center and the dark matter halo,” stated Zheng Zheng, an astronomy researcher at the University of Utah who led the study.

“We can’t see the dark matter halo, but its gravity acts on the star. We gain insight from the star’s trajectory and velocity, which are affected by gravity from different parts of our galaxy.”

The star is about 62,000 light years from the galaxy’s center (much further than the sun’s 26,000 light years) and is about four times hotter and 3,400 times brighter than our own sun. Astronomers estimate it is 32 million years old, which makes it quite young compared to the sun’s 4.5 billion years.

(Excerpt) Read more at . ...


TOPICS: Science
KEYWORDS: astronomy

1 posted on 05/12/2014 11:38:24 AM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin

If Obama had a young sun………………..


2 posted on 05/12/2014 11:42:14 AM PDT by Doc Savage ("I've shot people I like a lot more,...for a lot less!" Raylan Givins)
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To: BenLurkin

a star was seen moving at 1.4 million miles an hour....relative to what? exactly?


3 posted on 05/12/2014 11:47:28 AM PDT by camle (keep an open mind and someone will fill it full of something for you)
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To: camle

“What difference does it make!?” :-)


4 posted on 05/12/2014 11:52:33 AM PDT by SgtHooper (This is my tag!)
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To: BenLurkin
What’s interesting about the star, besides its pure speed, is it is travelling in a “dark matter” halo surrounding our galaxies, the astronomers said.

But isn't dark matter unseeable? And dark energy undetectable? So...how was this 'dark matter halo' observed?

5 posted on 05/12/2014 11:52:50 AM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (Only Liberals can look at an amendment that says “shall not be infringed" and see blank parchment.)
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To: camle

Dunno. Point a to point b?


6 posted on 05/12/2014 11:58:18 AM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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To: BenLurkin
“If you’re looking at a herd of cows, and one starts going 60 mph, that’s telling you something important” “You may not know at first what that is. But for hypervelocity stars, one of their mysteries is where they come from – and the massive black hole in our galaxy is implicated.”

It took one look at that black hole and got the hell outta there!

I would too!

7 posted on 05/12/2014 11:59:37 AM PDT by Savage Beast (Hubris and denial overwhelm Western Civilization. Nemesis and tragedy always follow.)
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To: BenLurkin
Can Super-Fast Stars Unveil Dark Matter’s Secrets?

Sure they can, right after they unveil aether's and phlogiston's secrets

8 posted on 05/12/2014 12:08:15 PM PDT by qam1 (There's been a huge party. All plates and the bottles are empty, all that's left is the bill to pay)
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts

Bald opinion statements from the left’s “priestly” (so-called scientific) class.


9 posted on 05/12/2014 12:09:25 PM PDT by afsnco
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To: camle

Greenwich Meridian.


10 posted on 05/12/2014 12:12:47 PM PDT by dangerdoc
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To: BenLurkin
“The hypervelocity star tells us a lot about our galaxy – especially its center and the dark matter halo,” stated Zheng Zheng....

Science so simple, a panda can do it

11 posted on 05/12/2014 12:12:51 PM PDT by Hegewisch Dupa
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To: camle
a star was seen moving at 1.4 million miles an hour....relative to what? exactly?

Us, I would think.

12 posted on 05/12/2014 1:28:48 PM PDT by PapaBear3625 (You don't notice it's a police state until the police come for you.)
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To: PapaBear3625

http://www.universetoday.com/111841/can-super-fast-stars-unveil-dark-matters-secrets/
Original link to the story didn’t work for me. Forget about stars going fast. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the visual of a cow going 60 mph.


13 posted on 05/12/2014 1:41:56 PM PDT by freefdny
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To: qam1
Sure they can, right after they unveil aether's and phlogiston's secrets

All penny-ante, compared to the overmastering effects of orgone.

14 posted on 05/12/2014 1:49:41 PM PDT by lentulusgracchus
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