Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by on Wednesday February 08 2017, @03:47AM   Printer-friendly
from the alien-spaceship dept.

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


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by maxwell demon on Wednesday February 08 2017, @08:39AM

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Wednesday February 08 2017, @08:39AM (#464482) Journal

    Super-sonic: above sound. And the speed of sound is?

    In the milky way: Somewhere between 100 m/s and 100 km/s, depending on where you are. [stackexchange.com]

    Assuming it doesn't move through hot ionized medium, 120 km/s is very clearly above the speed of sound. However being a molecular cloud itself, it almost certainly doesn't move through a molecular cloud, which is at the lower range of sound speeds. Assuming the cloud moves through a warm medium, the cloud's Mach speed is at the order of Mach 10.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Informative=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3