Researchers from the University of Utah have discovered a new hypervelocity star that, compared to 19 other stars previously documented, is the closest, second-brightest and largest one to date.
The discovery of a new star, which has a recorded speed of 1 million mph, may shed some light on the supermassive black hole in the middle of the Milky Way and the mysterious “dark matter” that forms a halo in the galaxy.
“The hypervelocity star tells us a lot about our galaxy – especially its center and the dark matter halo. We can’t see the dark matter halo, but its gravity acts on the star. We gain insight from the star’s trajectory and velocity, which are affected by gravity from different parts of our galaxy,” said Zheng Zheng, assistant professor of astronomy and physics and lead author of the study, in a university press release.
Researchers found the new hypervelocity star while conducting other star-focused research using the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST). With features such as a 13.1 foot-wide aperture and 4,000 optical fibers, the LAMOST can capture the so-called “spectra” or readings in light-wavelength from as many as 4,000 stars all at the same time. Understanding the star’s spectrum gives us valuable information on its temperature, velocity, size and luminosity.
Dubbed LAMOST-HVS1, this new hypervelocity star stood out among previously-discovered stars of its kind because of its speed, which is three times faster than the usual 500,000-mph stars use to move through space. It is around 42,400 light years from Earth, or around 249 quadrillion miles away. Aside from being nine times larger than our sun, it is also four times hotter and around 3,400 times brighter. Nevertheless, it is still younger, born just 32 million years ago - compare that figure to the sun's age of 4.6 billion years old.
Further details of this discovery were published on The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
