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Astronomers announced today the discovery of several dozen stars which are traveling so fast they will escape the Milky Way galaxy.

Astronomers announced today the discovery of 18 sunlike stars which are traveling so fast they will escape the Milky Way galaxy.

These sunlike stars are in addition to another 20 blue giant stars that are also traveling at escape velocity.

The origin of all of these new stars is completely mysterious. The theory had been that such stars got their speed boost by being flung past the galaxy’s central supermassive black hole, dubbed Sagittarius A* (pronounced “A-star”). These new stars, however, come from other directions, and in fact appear to have even come from outside the galaxy’s main disk. Thus, astronomers are baffled as to what caused them to be traveling so fast.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

13 comments

  • Cotour

    So about 14 billion years ago, from a pin point erupted something into nothing. Energy transformed into matter, E=MC2. And it is assumed by some that we are the only forms of life in this universe that exists in it and are self aware and are able to manipulate matter and space to our will to the extent that we are currently able to manipulate it or beyond?

    If we can establish and come to understand one, what is so difficult about believing the other? But where is the evidence, and if there is evidence are we able to perceive and understand it?

  • joe

    Almost sounds like how the government creates money!

  • Cotour

    A good analogy, except in the end, when you compare the two you have whats left as the result. The universe remains and serves its own purpose, fiat currency and central banks were warned against by the founders, and all that is left in the end is chaos and one big black hole.

  • Pzatchok

    This looks like just one possible end for binary stars.

    Spiraling inward toward each other faster and faster until one eventually goes supernova and kicks the other one away.
    Both its explosion and subsequent loss of mass could account for the sister star being thrown off at an odd angle and high speed.

    Random chance would send it in the right direction to have the needed speed to leave.
    It could have just as easily been tossed the other way and never gained the extra momentum.

  • The astronomers made the point in the article, as well as at their press conference, that the kick received from a supernova is not sufficient to produce the speed these stars are traveling at. That is why they had assumed the kick had come from the supermassive black hole. That it did not leaves a mystery that is not easily explained.

  • Rodney

    Puppeteer worlds escaping the coming galactic calamity

  • Pzatchok

    Stars could also mean blackholes.

    For me at least a blackhole is in the life cycle of some stars.

  • Even an ordinary black hole doesn’t have the gravity to fling these runaway stars away at these speeds. As I said, the theory had been that you needed a supermassive black hole, billions of solar masses, as found at the galaxy’s center. It didn’t do it, however, which leaves the astronomers baffled.

  • Pzatchok

    Who said it had to come from our galaxy?

    There is more than one.

    As long as the real pro’s don’t come up with some super-string like theory to explain it I’ll bet its just something simple.

    Speed is relative.

  • Pzatchok

    Their calculations are based on the fact they those previous stars had to reach escape velocity from the galactic center. Which is a VERY different place compared to the rest of the galaxy.

    Escape velocity in our local area is NOT that high.

    A high speed binaries might just be able to produce the needed speed to leave the galaxy if one of them suddenly “disappeared” and tossed the other one off.

    We know there are close by star clusters outside out galaxy, any of those could have been a point of origin.
    Whats the escape velocity from an empty area outside the local galaxy?
    Are we passing them at the same time they are passing us?
    Speed is relative.

    They never make an exact claim for any of the objects speeds and in fact make the statement they could very well be way off. They are not even sure of the exact directions yet.

  • Pzatchok

    The puppeteer’s would never send their planet ships back into a higher density region of space. They would have left the dense areas as fast as possible and stayed out there.

    Hell they even feared sharp corners.

  • “Their calculations are based on the fact they those previous stars had to reach escape velocity from the galactic center. Which is a VERY different place compared to the rest of the galaxy.

    Escape velocity in our local area is NOT that high.”

    An excellent point I had not thought of.

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