Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
While focussing on the remains of an exploded star roughly 10,000 light-years away, a team of Japanese astronomers have stumbled across a mysterious cloud of molecules tearing through the Milky Way. So quickly, in fact, they've nick-named [...] the unknown phenomenon the 'Bullet'.
The cause of this cloud's ridiculous speed isn't clear, but so far all signs suggest it's been sent hurtling through space thanks to a rogue black hole.
On account of their light-sucking talent, black holes aren't known for being all that easy to spot. They sometimes reveal themselves by stealing material from a nearby star, heating it up and forcing it to emit X-rays.
If they're wandering alone in interstellar space, however, they tend to remain hidden.
Yet in this case, the shadowy influence of a black hole could explain why a cloud of molecules 2 light-years in size was moving forward at 120 kilometres per second (75 miles per second), and expanding at 50 kilometres per second (31 miles per second).
Weirder still, it was moving against the direction of the Milky Way's spin.
Source: http://www.sciencealert.com/astronomers-find-hints-of-a-black-hole-powered-supersonic-space-cloud
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday February 08 2017, @08:17AM
Well, this cloud is traveling through interstellar space, so the calculations for a Mach number should be pretty easy!
In space, no one can hear you speed!
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 08 2017, @12:59PM
That depends on the size of your space ship and the listening equipment. Sufficiently low frequencies (or more accurately, sufficient large wavelengths) can indeed be transmitted in space; it's just that they are far beyond our hearing range.