Shooting star, literally: Supermassive a-hole ejects star from galaxy

August 3, 2019 1:49 AM

Astronomers Discover Super-Fast Star Thrown Out Of The Center Of The Milky Way - "Many stars orbit near Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way... If our friendly neighborhood supermassive black hole is indeed the culprit, the star was probably kicked away with a velocity of roughly 1,800 kilometers per second (over 4 million miles per hour) and has been slowly slowing down on its travels for about 4.8 million years. The star, which is a standard hydrogen-fusing or 'main sequence' object, is located roughly 30,000 light-years from Earth." [1,2,3]

also btw, speaking of detecting cosmic events...
Has LIGO Just Detected The 'Trifecta' Signal That All Astronomers Have Been Hoping For? - "When it comes to cataclysmic events in the Universe — wherever large-magnitude astrophysical interactions cause an enormous release of energy — our understanding of the laws of physics tells us that there are three possible ways to detect and measure them. The first is the most familiar: through light, or electromagnetic waves. The second is through the arrival of particles: like cosmic rays or energetic neutrinos. And the third, which first came to fruition just under four years ago, is from the detection of gravitational waves."

posted by kliuless (15 comments total)

Very interesting - I’m also grateful for the word ‘yeet’.
posted by Segundus at 4:23 AM on August 3, 2019 [5 favorites]

I wonder if the star said "Here we go!" as it transited the Devil's Anus.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 5:42 AM on August 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

And you can help! Zooniverse (previously) has the Gravity Spy project to crowdsource detecting glitches and help scientists at LIGO search for gravitational waves.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 9:40 AM on August 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

You buried the lede! That LIGO story is really exciting.
posted by Nelson at 10:28 AM on August 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

Amazing that H5-SVSI hasn't smashed into anything on its way out. Which I guess demonstrates how empty space is, even close the the center of the Milky Way.
posted by vicusofrecirculation at 10:39 AM on August 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

Dr. Becky has you covered on? What's the probability that two stars collide when galaxies collide? [with equations!] and the emptiness of space space space space...
posted by zengargoyle at 11:13 AM on August 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

You know, maybe it's just me, but I don't really see an anal connection here
posted by thelonius at 11:15 AM on August 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

...the star was probably kicked away with a velocity of roughly 1,800 kilometers per second (over 4 million miles per hour)

IT KNOWS WHAT IT DID!

(as the folks at Universe Today observed about another HVS)
posted by thatwhichfalls at 12:07 PM on August 3, 2019 [3 favorites]

That Forbes LIGO article is immensely hard work to get the juice out of and doesn't so much bury the lede as put it so far underground it can detect neutrinos. And it includes you-whar? toe-stubbers like "Whereas black holes have event horizons around the overwhelming majority of their masses...". I know it's exciting to find a triple-messenger event, but finding a site that employs a competent science editor would be even better...
posted by Devonian at 1:23 PM on August 3, 2019 [3 favorites]

Yeah Forbes is mostly a community blog full of unedited garbage and SEO spam. It's unusual to find an article with this much content there. I suspect the better edited and written science publications are waiting for confirmation before writing a long speculative article.
posted by Nelson at 1:37 PM on August 3, 2019

Surely it's a supermassive b-hole?
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 2:30 PM on August 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

I’m also grateful for the word ‘yeet’.
posted by Segundus

I am diametrically opposed.
posted by Splunge at 3:32 PM on August 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

You know, maybe it's just me, but I don't really see an anal connection here

Thor: Ragnarok. The biggest singularity/wormhole portal on Sakaar. My guess, singularity == blackhole (for various definitions of "singularity", "==", and "blackhole").
posted by MikeKD at 4:20 PM on August 3, 2019

Competition for SpaceX in the “launch” news department.
posted by metacurious at 5:34 PM on August 3, 2019

Someday you'll find it, the anal connection...

for me, it was the asterisk (from breakfast of champions :P every time!)
posted by kliuless at 6:19 AM on August 6, 2019