Not to get all unscientifically anthropomorphic on you all, but here's proof that the universe really does have something in common with teenagers.
What, you ask? Both like fire, and shooting things. Together, if possible.
Astronomers using the Chandra X-ray Observatory have found a neutron star that is apparently shooting on its way out of the Milky Way at the astonishing velocity of 3 million miles per hour.
They've been watching the neutron star, called RX J0822-4300, for the last five years, and so are able to calculate its velocity by tracking its motion. Apparently created bout 3700 years ago in a supernova, the neutron star is now barreling away from the debris field left by the explosion.
Researchers have seen so-called "hypervelocity" stars in the Milky Way before, but usually traveling a mere 1 million miles per hour, and usually thought to have been shot into movement by interaction with the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy.
The supernova that created RX J0822-4300 was apparently unbalanced, pushing the neutron star core and the debris fields in separate directions. But scientists are having a tough time explaining how it could be pushed into such rapid motion using traditional supernova models.
Another few million years and it'll be out of the Milky Way altogether. Very impressive indeed, although I won't wait up.
A paper on the speedy star was published in the Nov. 20 issue of The Astrophysical Journal.
Chandra Discovers Cosmic Cannonball [Chandra press release]
(Image: Main photo is wide-angle composite image of supernova remnant. Inset is X-ray time-lapse photo of speeding neutron star.
Credit: Chandra: NASA/CXC/Middlebury College/F.Winkler et al.; ROSAT:
NASA/GSFC/S.Snowden et al.; Optical: NOAO/CTIO/Middlebury
College/F.Winkler et al.)
