Hubble catches shots of runaway star
Here’s a nifty scientific tidbit. The Hubble Telescope recently caught a glimpse of “30 Dor 016”, a super-massive star astronomers have dubbed as a “runaway star” traveling through space at a record-breaking 250,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) an hour.”
Based on estimates, 30 Dor 016 has already traveled an incredible 375 light years from the R136 star cluster where astronomers believe it was born.
The above picture was taken by Hubble after the last space shuttle servicing mission in May of 2009 and used to help calibrate the newly installed Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS).
OK, so you might be wondering how a runaway star happens in the first place right? According to the HubbleSite NewsCenter:
“Runaway stars can be made in a couple of ways. A star may encounter one or two heavier siblings in a massive, dense cluster and get booted out through a stellar game of pinball. Or, a star may get a ‘kick’ from a supernova explosion in a binary system, with the more massive star exploding first.”
However, COS team member, Danny Lennon of the Space Telescope Science Institute believes a supernova is unlikely due to the relatively youth of the R136 star cluster. Thus, it’s more likely “the star star must have been ejected through dynamical interaction”
All I can say is.. stay out of it’s way!!
[Check it out via National Geographic]
