Posted on 11/29/2007 10:15:27 AM PST by Freeport
One of the fastest moving stars ever seen is challenging theories to explain its blistering speed.
The cosmic cannonball, a neutron star known as RX J0822-4300, was discovered with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Astronomers used five years of Chandra observations to show that the rogue star is careening away from the Puppis A supernova remnant, leftovers of a star that exploded about 3,700 years ago. The neutron star is racing out of our Milky Way Galaxy at about 3 million mph (4.8 million kph).
"Just after it was born, this neutron star got a one-way ticket out of the galaxy," said co-author Robert Petre, an astronomer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "Astronomers have seen other stars being flung out of the Milky Way, but few as fast as this."
Other hypervelocity stars known to be exiting the Milky Way move at speeds about one-third as great—likely shot toward interstellar space by an aggressive, supermassive black hole at our galaxy's center.
In the case of RX J0822-4300, however, a tremendous lopsided supernova explosion rocketed the neutron star to its blinding speed. It has traveled 20 light-years thus far, and will take millions of years to escape the clutches of the Milky Way.
Despite using advanced computer models to simulate how such a stellar rocket could form, astronomers are at a loss of words.
"The problem with discovering this cosmic cannonball is we aren't sure how to make the cannon powerful enough." said Frank Winkler, an astronomer at Middlebury College in Vermont. "The high speed might be explained by an unusually energetic explosion, but the models are complicated and hard to apply to real explosions."
Winkler and Petre's research is detailed in a recent issue of the Astrophysical Journal.
That means:
From earth to the moon in 4.8 minutes
From earth to mars in 12 hrs.
From earth to pluto in 60 days
For Comparison:
The planitary probe, New Horizons, that was launched in January 2006 towards pluto by the US took 1 year to get to Jupiter and will take another 9 to get to pluto....
Pretty cool stuff.
Obviously earth’s global warming has to do with this star’s escape velocity...I’m sure of it.
Have they researched if Carbon Emmisions might be powering this breakneck speed? We should do something about this. This reckless star could do real damage or hurt someone.
Yeah, but how fast can it go from the living room to the kitchen to grab an adult beverage and back again ?
I’m guessing it’s a combination of global warming as a fuel source and it’s Bush’s fault for acting as the catalyst.
a ‘Project Orion’ space ship could travel at 3% to 5% of the S.O.L.
We could do this with current technology.
Paging Dr. Robert L. Forward. Paging Dr. Forward.
Yes, I know he’s gone but he would have liked to see this.
Except a supernova isn’t a ‘real’ explosion, as we know them on Earth. I don’t think Russia’s Csar Bomba would be a fractional percent of the energy released from a supernova.
Still... 12 hrs to Mars would be awesome... The gravity of the star ripping through the solar system would be a bit of a problem though...
Fast enough. But not fast enough to escape the IRS.
With galactic distances, 3%-5% is incredibly slow.
Needless to say, this has Karl Rove's fingerprints ALL over it!
“Still... 12 hrs to Mars would be awesome..”
It would...however Mars also is experiencing man made global warming.
;)
And it’s not like it’s a comet, either. If I remember correctly, one tablespoon/teaspoon of neutron star matter would be the equivalent weight of every human on Earth.
A neutron star moving through our solar system would absolutely rip it apart, with no chance of it ever joining together again.
Inter-galactic space! Geeze, doesn't anybody read this stuff before release?..............
What's it know that we don't know?
Course the traffic cops would be a pain.... 3 mmph in a 1 mmph zone and all....
Now that’s a speeding ticket!
There’s cows on Mars?
but within in the solar system it is breakneck speed.
and it would make ‘local’ interstellar travel feasible at least for generation ships.
you gotta start somewhere.
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