Publication Date:
2015-03-07
Description:
Hypervelocity stars (HVSs) travel with velocities so high that they exceed the escape velocity of the Galaxy. Several acceleration mechanisms have been discussed. Only one HVS (US 708, HVS 2) is a compact helium star. Here we present a spectroscopic and kinematic analysis of US 708. Traveling with a velocity of ~1200 kilometers per second, it is the fastest unbound star in our Galaxy. In reconstructing its trajectory, the Galactic center becomes very unlikely as an origin, which is hardly consistent with the most favored ejection mechanism for the other HVSs. Furthermore, we detected that US 708 is a fast rotator. According to our binary evolution model, it was spun-up by tidal interaction in a close binary and is likely to be the ejected donor remnant of a thermonuclear supernova.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Geier, S -- Furst, F -- Ziegerer, E -- Kupfer, T -- Heber, U -- Irrgang, A -- Wang, B -- Liu, Z -- Han, Z -- Sesar, B -- Levitan, D -- Kotak, R -- Magnier, E -- Smith, K -- Burgett, W S -- Chambers, K -- Flewelling, H -- Kaiser, N -- Wainscoat, R -- Waters, C -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Mar 6;347(6226):1126-8. doi: 10.1126/science.1259063.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, 85748 Garching, Germany. Dr. Karl Remeis-Observatory and Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics, Astronomical Institute, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Sternwartstrasse 7, 96049 Bamberg, Germany. sgeier@eso.org. ; Space Radiation Lab, MC 290-17 Cahill, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. ; Dr. Karl Remeis-Observatory and Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics, Astronomical Institute, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Sternwartstrasse 7, 96049 Bamberg, Germany. ; Department of Astrophysics/Institute for Mathematics, Astrophysics and Particle Physics, Radboud University Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, Netherlands. ; Key Laboratory of the Structure and Evolution of Celestial Objects, Yunnan Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650011, China. ; Key Laboratory of the Structure and Evolution of Celestial Objects, Yunnan Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650011, China. Argelander-Institut fur Astronomie, Universitat Bonn, Auf dem Hugel 71, 53121 Bonn, Germany. ; Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie, Konigstuhl 17, 69117, Heidelberg, Germany. ; Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. ; Astrophysics Research Center, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK. ; Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA. ; Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie, Konigstuhl 17, 69117, Heidelberg, Germany.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25745168" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
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Chemistry and Pharmacology
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Computer Science
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Medicine
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Natural Sciences in General
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Physics
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