Superlative Stars
The Fastest
Astronomers have caught a baby star moving through space almost 50 times
faster than a speeding bullet. PV Cephei is only half a million years old,
and was slung out of the cluster of stars in which it formed through
gravitational interactions, said Alyssa Goodman of the Harvard-Smithsonian
Center for Astrophysics. The star’s distance from its birthplace, together
with its age, allowed Goodman to deduce its speed. This shows that
“immigration happens,” Goodman said.
The Biggest and Brightest
A star in a cluster near the center of our Milky Way galaxy may be the
largest and brightest ever found. Called LBV 1806-20, it’s five to 40
million times brighter than the Sun, at least 150 times as massive, and
about 200 times wider. Astronomers don’t know if it’s a single star, or if
it’s bound in a binary or triple star system. The star’s strange properties
pose a challenge to the current theory of star formation, according to the
star’s discoverer, Steve Eikenberry of the University of Florida in
Gainesville. See also: Table of the brightest stars.
The Most Sun-Like
Villanova University astronomers recently announced success in their quest
to locate a twin of the Sun. At 47 light-years away, 18 Scorpii has
virtually the same temperature, mass, size, rotation period, and age as the
Sun. Other astronomers have looked for planets around 18 Scorpii, but the
results are inconclusive. They do know that it does not have a “hot Jupiter”
— a massive gas giant planet orbiting close to the star. Future searches
could find smaller planets close to the star, or gas giants orbiting at
larger distances. -- Rebecca Johnson
This document was last modified: October 19 2009.
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