Supernova shot ‘runaway star’ into space at high speed
Astronomer Kathryn Neugent discusses how scientists found the supermassive star moving at 300,000 miles per hour—and what caused its speedy travel.
by James Urton-Washington
Apr 01, 2018
0 minutes
Astronomers may have found why a yellow supergiant star is moving through space at such high speed.
As they report in a paper accepted to the Astronomical Journal, the team tracked one yellow supergiant star cruising along at about 300,000 miles per hour, a velocity that would get you from Earth to the moon in about 48 minutes.
Kathryn Neugent, a University of Washington doctoral student in astronomy, is lead author of the paper—which stems from work she began as a researcher at the Lowell Observatory.
Neugent recently answered some questions about the star and its journey.
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