![An utterly ridiculous artist's impression of a hypervelocity star getting kicked out of the Milky Way. [Credit: Ben Bromley, University of Utah]](https://sciencevspseudoscience.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/hypervelocity_star.jpg?w=300&h=217)
An utterly ridiculous artist’s impression of a hypervelocity star getting kicked out of the Milky Way. [Credit: Ben Bromley, University of Utah]
So why are hypervelocity stars so fast? Many stars are in binary systems, locked in mutual orbit with another star. If a binary strays too close to the galaxy’s massive central black hole, the complex gravitational interaction between the two stars and the black hole can split the system apart. In that case, one star ends up in a closer orbit, while the other gets a big boost of speed—maybe even fast enough to escape from the galaxy. [Read more…]