Astronomers at the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics discovered a star fleeing our galaxy. They believe that this speedy exit was presumably caused by the star encountering the Milky Way Galaxy’s central black hole. The astronomers estimate that the star has a speed of at least 1.5 million miles per hour.
This is the first star moving fast enough to actually break away from the limits of the Milky Way. The extreme gravity caused by the black hole of our galaxy’s center is necessary to cause speeds of this kind from an interstellar object. With a velocity twice as fast as any we have seen before from an escaping object, it is clear that it will be able to travel far beyond the reaches of our galaxy.
Also, because the star is made up of more heavy metals than those farther away from the center of the galaxy, astronomers concluded, after analyzing its path and velocity, that the star must be less than 80 million years old and have originated near the center of the Milky Way.
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