A strange star is moving through our galaxy at a
speed that is hard to imagine. Astronomers found PSR J0002+6216, a lone runner
moving at 2.5 million miles per hour, nearly 4 million kilometers per hour, or
700 miles per second (1,127 kilometers per second).
PSR J0002+6216 moves at a speed of 1,127 kilometers
per second. This means that if it were going from Earth to the moon, it would
get there in less than 6 minutes.
The star was seen flying away from the expanding
cloud left by a recent supernova explosion. After breaking through the outer
layer of the explosion, it leaves a huge cosmic trail as it moves through the
galaxy.
Astronomers say that the tail is about 13
light-years long and points back toward the center of the supernova.
A pulsar, which is what PSR J0002+6216 is, is a type
of neutron star. A pulsar is a neutron star that spins and sends out a beam of
electromagnetic radiation. These stars spin at mind-bogglingly high speeds,
which makes them shoot out jets of electromagnetic radiation. This pulsar turns
8.7 times per second. If the star’s jets of electromagnetic radiation line up
with Earth as it spins on its axis through space, they look like a cosmic
lighthouse.
Frank Schinzel, a scientist at the National Radio
Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), says, “Thanks to its thin, dart-like tail and a
lucky way to look at it, we can follow this pulsar all the way back to where it
was born. More research into this object will help us figure out how these
explosions can make neutron stars move so fast.
PSR J0002+6216 is about 6,500 light-years from
Earth. It is in the constellation Cassiopeia.
Researchers say that the pulsar is about one
light-year away from the core of CTB 1, which is a supernova remnant. It was
found that PSR J0002+6216 was moving through the galaxy five times faster than
most pulsars do.
Astronomers say that PSR J0002+6216 moves faster
than 99 percent of the Pulsars whose speeds have been measured. Here is where
you can read the research paper.
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