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Real shooting stars look a lot different than you'd expect
We're talking hypervelocity here.
BY IDAN GINSBURG / THE CONVERSATION | PUBLISHED JAN 9, 2022 9:00 PM
Shooting stars in deep space, also known as hypervelocity stars, travel so fast, then can wrench free of the gravitational force of their home galaxies. Kristopher Roller / Unsplash
“I see thy glory like a shooting star.”
So says the Earl of Salisbury as he ruminates about the future in Shakespeare’s “Richard II.”
During the English Renaissance, people believed shooting stars were luminaries falling from the heavens and harbingers of calamity. But by the end of the 19th century, scientists had established the truth to be far more mundane. What today are commonly called shooting or falling stars are simply small pieces of rock or dust that quickly burn up upon entering Earth’s atmosphere.
But nature has a surprise for you – shooting stars really do exist.
More:
https://www.popsci.com/space/real-shooting-stars-look-a-lot-different-than-youd-expect/
