Speeding Star to Escape from Milky Way

Space.com ^ | 28 November 2007 | Dave Mosher

[Freeport]

This thing is leaving at 0.44% the speed of light...

That means:

From earth to the moon in 4.8 minutes

From earth to mars in 12 hrs.

From earth to pluto in 60 days

For Comparison:

The planitary probe, New Horizons, that was launched in January 2006 towards pluto by the US took 1 year to get to Jupiter and will take another 9 to get to pluto....

[Slapshot68]

Pretty cool stuff.

Obviously earth’s global warming has to do with this star’s escape velocity...I’m sure of it.

[Tenacious 1]

Have they researched if Carbon Emmisions might be powering this breakneck speed? We should do something about this. This reckless star could do real damage or hurt someone.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Yeah, but how fast can it go from the living room to the kitchen to grab an adult beverage and back again ?

[ECM]

I’m guessing it’s a combination of global warming as a fuel source and it’s Bush’s fault for acting as the catalyst.

[Vaquero]

a ‘Project Orion’ space ship could travel at 3% to 5% of the S.O.L.

We could do this with current technology.

[nomorelurker]

Paging Dr. Robert L. Forward. Paging Dr. Forward.

Yes, I know he’s gone but he would have liked to see this.

[wastedyears]

Except a supernova isn’t a ‘real’ explosion, as we know them on Earth. I don’t think Russia’s Csar Bomba would be a fractional percent of the energy released from a supernova.

[Freeport]

Please...We all know that Nova & Super Nova cause the creation of ALL global warming atoms... They should immediately be legislated out of existence to stop the creation of carbon!!! </s>

Still... 12 hrs to Mars would be awesome... The gravity of the star ripping through the solar system would be a bit of a problem though...

[1rudeboy]

Fast enough. But not fast enough to escape the IRS.

[wastedyears]

With galactic distances, 3%-5% is incredibly slow.

[Freeport]

Running into a grain of dust would ruin your day though.

[JRios1968]

In the case of RX J0822-4300, however, a tremendous lopsided supernova explosion rocketed the neutron star to its blinding speed.

Needless to say, this has Karl Rove's fingerprints ALL over it!

[Slapshot68]

“Still... 12 hrs to Mars would be awesome..”

It would...however Mars also is experiencing man made global warming.

;)

[wastedyears]

And it’s not like it’s a comet, either. If I remember correctly, one tablespoon/teaspoon of neutron star matter would be the equivalent weight of every human on Earth.

A neutron star moving through our solar system would absolutely rip it apart, with no chance of it ever joining together again.

[Red Badger]

...likely shot toward interstellar space.....

Inter-galactic space! Geeze, doesn't anybody read this stuff before release?..............

[techcor]

The neutron star is racing out of our Milky Way Galaxy at about 3 million mph (4.8 million kph).

What's it know that we don't know?

[Freeport]

Yeah, but for running around the solar system... Whhhooooeeeee!!!! :-)

Course the traffic cops would be a pain.... 3 mmph in a 1 mmph zone and all....

Now that’s a speeding ticket!

[wastedyears]

There’s cows on Mars?

[Vaquero]

but within in the solar system it is breakneck speed.

and it would make ‘local’ interstellar travel feasible at least for generation ships.

you gotta start somewhere.