Black hole at the center of Milky Way powers galaxy’s fastest stars
July 23rd, 2010 - 3:01 pm ICT by ANIWashington, July 23 (ANI): Astronomers have found that a black hole at the centre of the Milky Way is shooting “hypervelocity stars” out of the galaxy at up to 1.8 million miles per hour.
“It’s an example of a very violent interaction that happens as a direct consequence of the black hole there.
“We had theorized that you could only get such high velocity if you kick a star from very close to a black hole in a special way that involves another star or object,” said Oleg Gnedin, an assistant professor in the University of Michigan Department of Astronomy.
It’s a three-body interaction. The black hole rips apart a binary or tertiary star system, captures one of the companions and jettisons the others,” he added.
Tracking hypervelocity star paths across the sky could help astronomers map the shape and gravitational potential of our galaxy and its dark matter halo, Gnedin said.
“This star was problematic from the beginning,” he said.
“It was the most massive of all the hypervelocity stars we found and therefore it appeared to have the shortest lifetime, about five times shorter than the expected flight time from center of the galaxy to its current position if it was ejected.
A solutions for that is that it is a blue straggler, a binary system of two stars that were ejected together and merged during flight,” Gnedin explained. (ANI)
- Black holes gobble up stars to grow bigger - Apr 03, 2012
- Hubble discovers hyperfast star hailing from Milky Way's core - Jul 23, 2010
- Study predicts occurrence of neutron star collision in local galaxies - Dec 03, 2010
- Runaway planets are universe's fastest objects - Mar 23, 2012
- Astronomers find evidence of merging galaxies creating binary quasar - Feb 04, 2010
- 'Magnetar' discovery challenges stellar evolution, black hole theory - Aug 19, 2010
- How black holes fire gas jets into space - Jan 12, 2012
- Astronomers spot merging star systems that might explode - Nov 17, 2010
- Study finds 'no link between dark matter, black holes' - Jan 21, 2011
- Astronomers discover 33 pairs of waltzing black holes - Jan 05, 2010
- M81's 'halo' offers insight into formation of galaxies - Apr 23, 2010
- Astronomers find supermassive black holes - Sep 01, 2011
- Scientists solve mystery of massive, not-so-bright large star - Oct 22, 2010
- Astronomers stumble on massive black holes - Dec 07, 2011
- New Hubble observations reveal composition of 'star guts' pouring out - Sep 04, 2010
Tags: assistant professor, astronomers, binary system, black hole, blue straggler, center of the galaxy, companions, current position, dark matter halo, gravitational potential, high velocity, hypervelocity, michigan department, miles per hour, milky way, million miles, oleg gnedin, star system, two stars, university of michigan