Wandering star screaming from Milky Way Runaway youngster clocked at more than 1.5 million mph

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | Friday, February 11, 2005 | - David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor

[budman_2001]

A lonely young star has been discovered fleeing from the Milky Way galaxy at the most fantastic speeds ever seen, and Harvard astronomers say it is doomed to wander throughout the universe for the rest of its life.

"We've never before seen a star moving fast enough to escape the confines of our galaxy," said astrophysicist Warren Brown, its co-discoverer. "We're tempted to call it the outcast star."

[budman_2001]

An artist's impression of an outcast star zooming out of the Milky Way, ejected from the galactic center after a close encounter with a black hole.Reuters

[uncitizen]

testing

[budman_2001]

five-by.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

It must have seen Michael Moore naked.

[sourcery]

And if the LAPD aren't in an aerial-photographed high-speed chase of the perp, then they're extremely out of character.

[ScottFromSpokane]

I was born under a wanderin' star
I was born under a wanderin' star
Wheels are made for rollin'
Mules are made to pack
I never seen a sight
that didn't look better lookin' back
I was born under a wanderin' star

Geez, what an awful, awful movie that was.

[Ichneumon]

Science ping.

[Larry Lucido]

So, if our sun had a close encounter with a black hole and was flung, with all its planets, outside the galaxy, how would it affect us? And would it still be Bush's fault?

[budman_2001]

It indeed, was so corny that it was good.

6.5 on a 10-scale (IMdb)

[freebilly]

So, if our sun had a close encounter with a black hole...how would it affect us?

Well, if my son had an encounter with a black hole I would strongly urge him to marry....

[bootyist-monk]

Ben Affleck?

[A CA Guy]

The darn thing caught a glimpse of Hillary, no doubt.

[WestVirginiaRebel]

"I'll bring it back!!!"

[Red Sea Swimmer]

What sort of police radar gun clocked this comet ?

How much will this galactic runaway learner driver be fined ?

And, more to the point...How will the police catch him ?

[Larry Lucido]

Buford T. Justice at your service, Sir.

[Larry Lucido]

Don't know why the pic didn't show up.

[Ichneumon]

So, if our sun had a close encounter with a black hole and was flung, with all its planets, outside the galaxy, how would it affect us?

I suspect that an encounter close enough to a black whole to fling a star that fast would yank its planets out of orbit around it due to tidal effects.

But on the slim chance that the planets stayed around the Sun, and the radiation didn't kill us (stuff accelerating into black holes generates a ton of X-rays and so on), after the encounter itself the answer about how much it would affect us would be, "not much". The constellations in the night sky would change over time rather "quickly" as those things go, but probably not be noticeable during a human lifetime. And leaving the galaxy wouldn't cause any significant effect except for a much duller night sky, with fewer and fainter stars (and most of them would be on one "side" of the sky).

That, plus we could visit a new alien race each week as we whizzed through their regions of the universe:

And would it still be Bush's fault?

But of course.

[Red Sea Swimmer]

His girth and the model of his car would suggest that he would only be able to catch a very slow moving celestial object.

:)

[Ichneumon]

clocked at more than 1.5 million mph

Wow, that's 0.2% of the speed of light, which is *really* moving, especially for an object that size.

[Red Sea Swimmer]

In my late teens, I knew a guy who one night when he was bored went out (dressed in an official looking outfit) to the side of a busy road with a hairdryer and aimed at the oncoming traffic. He had instant success as the traffic slowed down and many people told him to...

"Go back to the Hairdressers".

(The words shouted by the drivers passing him were not exactly those kind, advisory, if you know what I mean.)

It's amazing what fun he had with just one hairdryer.