SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
Zeta Ophiuchi is a star with a complicated past, as it was likely ejected from its birthplace by a powerful stellar explosion. A detailed new look by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory helps tell more of the history of this runaway star.
Located approximately 440 light-years from Earth, Zeta Ophiuchi is a hot star that is about 20 times more massive than the Sun. Evidence that Zeta Ophiuchi was once in close orbit with another star, before being ejected at about 100,000 miles per hour when this companion was destroyed in a supernova explosion over a million years ago has been provided by previous observations.
In fact, previously released infrared data from NASA’s now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope, seen in this new composite image, reveals a spectacular shock wave (red and green) that was formed by matter blowing away from the star’s surface and slamming into gas in its path. A bubble of X-ray emission (blue) located around the star, produced by gas that has been heated by the effects of the shock wave to tens of millions of degrees, is revealed by data from Chandra.
Reference: “Thermal emission from bow shocks. II. 3D magnetohydrodynamic models of zeta Ophiuchi” by S. Green, J. Mackey, P. Kavanagh, T. J. Haworth, M. Moutzouri and V. V. Gvaramadze, Accepted, Astronomy and Astrophysics.
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202243531
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday August 03 2022, @02:31AM
I presume they mean 44 km/s above the speed the star would be moving if it was in an ordinary, near circular orbit about the center of the galaxy. Or perhaps that's it's speed relative to us. Yes, they ought to clarify that. From what I read, most near stars differ in speed from us by less than 20 km/s.
While it's not a hypervelocity star (we know of only about 20 of those), I gather it is moving enough faster to make a bigger than usual bow wave.