Astronomers discovered a new population of ultra-fast-moving stars, including the fastest 'runaway' star ever seen in our galaxy.
A red 'runaway' star appears to blaze with fire as it exits its original star system in the Flaming Star nebula Astronomers have detected the fastest runaway star ever seen in the Milky Way galaxy — the husk of a star launched at blistering speeds from a gigantic cosmic explosion. The white dwarf, named J0927, was spotted hurtling through space at a stunning 5.112 million miles per hour (8,226,967 kilometers per hour). Called a hypervelocity star because its speed will one day enable it to entirely escape the gravitational pull of the Milky Way, J0927 was spotted alongside three other fast-moving stars, all of which are thought to be the results of a Type Ia supernova — one of the most violent explosions in the universe. The researchers published their findings June 6 on the preprint server arXiv , and the findings have not yet been peer-reviewed. Related: 'Green Monster' supernova is the youngest in the Milky Way, James Webb telescope reveals Type Ia supernovas occur when two stars, one of them the collapsed husk of a star called a white dwarf, fall into orbit around each other. This causes the white dwarf to strip hydrogen from the star it is spiraling around, creating a runaway reaction that ends in a…