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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 Immerman on Thursday August 04 2022, @05:28PM
A little correction on your escape velocities: 11km/s is only the escape velocity from Earth. It'd let you coast to an infinite distance if there were nothing else in the universe.
Back in our universe it'll get you into a co-solar orbit with Earth. If you want to escape the sun as well you need more speed, at the distance of the Earth's orbit, solar escape velocity is 42km/s (Ve = sqrt(2GM/r)), though Earth's 30km/s orbital speed will count towards that - so you'd only need an extra 12km/s after escaping Earth (Also I believe you should add escape kinetic energies rather than velocities, so escaping the solar system from Earth's surface doesn't require 11+12=23km/s of speed, but only sqrt(11^2 + 12^2)=16km/s.)