Astronomers Find Fastest Rotating Star

[n2doc]

ScienceDaily (Dec. 5, 2011) — The European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope has picked up the fastest rotating star found so far. This massive bright young star lies in our neighbouring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, about 160,000 light-years from Earth. Astronomers think that it may have had a violent past and has been ejected from a double star system by its exploding companion.

An international team of astronomers has been using ESO's Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, to make a survey of the heaviest and brightest stars in the Tarantula Nebula, in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Among the many brilliant stars in this stellar nursery the team has spotted one, called VFTS 102 <1>, that is rotating at more than two million kilometres per hour -- more than three hundred times faster than the Sun <2> and very close to the point at which it would be torn apart due to centrifugal forces. VFTS 102 is the fastest rotating star known to date <3>.

The astronomers also found that the star, which is around 25 times the mass of the Sun and about one hundred thousand times brighter, was moving through space at a significantly different speed from its neighbours <4>.
"The remarkable rotation speed and the unusual motion compared to the surrounding stars led us to wonder if this star had had an unusual early life. We were suspicious." explains Philip Dufton (Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK), lead author of the paper presenting the results.

This difference in speed could imply that VFTS 102 is a runaway star -- a star that has been ejected from a double star system after its companion exploded as a supernova. This idea is supported by two further clues: a pulsar and an associated supernova remnant in its vicinity.

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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111205102424.htm

[StandingInLeftField]

1. When Life gets you down

You can always turn to the stars.

[leftyohiolib]

2. geez who needs the arrow it's obviously right there

[eppur_se_muova]

3. The NewtStar -- nothing else spins more!

Chris Matthews said Gingrich doesn't flip-flop, he gyrates -- so it's only appropriate to name this rapidly revoltingrevolving mass of hot gas after him.

[dtexdem]

4. Is it really the fastest, or is it just spin?

;-)

[Ptah]

5. "rotating at more than two million kilometres per hour" ? ?

What does that mean?

[sakabatou]

6. 1,242,742 mph or Mach 1,618

Or "THAT'S REALLY FUCKING FAST!"

[Ptah]

7. I understand the coversions you did.

I don't remember revolutions being expressed as linear velocity.

[sakabatou]

8. I'm not a math/science whiz X(

[ret5hd]

9. i'm sure they are calculating the linear speed from the circumference.

on edit: what would be interesting to know is if it is also the fastest rotating star if measured in rpm's.