A weird star is whizzing through our galaxy at anunimaginable speed. Astronomers discovered PSR J0002+6216, a lone runnerspeeding across our galaxy at 2.5 million miles per hour, nearly four million kilometersper hour, or 700 miles per second (1,127 kilometers per second).
PSR J0002+6216 travels at a speed of 1,127kilometers per second, which implies it could reach its destination inless than 6 minutes if it were going from Earth to the moon.
The star was spotted as it flew away from the expandingcloud left by a recent supernova explosion. After punching through theexplosion’s outer layer of material, it leaves behind a vast cosmic trail as ittravels across the galaxy.
According to astronomers, the tail extends around 13light-years and is seen pointing back to the supernova center.
PSR J0002+6216 is a pulsar, which is a type of neutronstar. A pulsar is a rotating neutron star that emits an electromagneticradiation beam. These stars have mind-bogglingly fast spin rates, causing themto emit jets of electromagnetic radiation as they spin. This pulsar rotates 8.7times per second. If the star’s jets of electromagnetic radiation line up withEarth as it spins on its axis through space, we see them as a kind of cosmiclighthouse.
Frank Schinzel, a scientist at the National Radio AstronomyObservatory (NRAO), explains: “Thanks to its narrow dart-like tail and afortuitous viewing angle, we can trace this pulsar straight back to its birthplace.Further study of this object will help us better understand how theseexplosions can ‘kick’ neutron stars to such high speed.”
PSR J0002+6216 is situated in the constellation Cᴀssiopeia,around 6,500 light-years from Earth.
According to researchers, the pulsar lies around alight-year away from the core of a supernova remnant known as CTB 1. PSRJ0002+6216 was discovered to be moving across the galaxy at a rate five timesfaster than the typical pulsar speed.
According to astronomers, PSR J0002+6216 is faster than 99percent of Pulsars with recorded speeds. You can read the research paper here.
