Fast objects. The fastest stars in the universe can reach the speed of light. The fastest wind

Our Sun revolves around the center of the Milky Way at 724,000 kilometers per hour. Scientists recently discovered stars that are rushing out of our galaxy at over 1,500,000 km/h. Can a star move even faster?

After doing some calculations, Harvard University astrophysicists Avi Loeb and James Gilshon realized that yes, stars can move faster. Much faster. According to their analysis, stars can reach the speed of light. The results are purely theoretical, so no one knows if this could happen until astronomers spot these super-fast stars - which Loeb says will be possible with next-generation telescopes.

But speed is not all that astronomers will get after the discovery. If such superfast stars are found, they will help to understand the evolution of the universe. In particular, to give scientists another tool to measure the rate of expansion of the cosmos. In addition, Loeb says, under certain conditions, there can be planets traveling through galaxies in the orbit of such stars. And if there is life on such planets, they could carry it from one galaxy to another. Agree, interesting arguments.

It all started in 2005 when a star was discovered that was rushing out of our galaxy so fast that it could escape the Milky Way's gravitational field. Over the following years, astronomers were able to discover a few more stars, which became known as hypervelocity stars. These stars were pushed out by the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. When a pair of such stars orbiting each other comes close to the central black hole, which weighs millions of times more than the sun, the three objects enter into a brief gravitational dance that causes one star to be ejected. The other remains in orbit around the black hole.

Loeb and Guilshon realized that if instead you had two supermassive black holes on the verge of colliding and a star orbiting one black hole, gravitational interactions could catapult the star into intergalactic space at hundreds of times the speed of superfast stars. The analysis was published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

According to Loeb, this is the most likely scenario in which the fastest stars in the universe can appear. After all, supermassive black holes collide more often than you might think. Almost all galaxies have supermassive black holes at their centers, and almost all galaxies are the result of the merger of two smaller galaxies. When galaxies merge, so do the central black holes.

Loeb and Guilshon calculated that the merger of supermassive black holes would have to eject stars with a wide range of velocities. Few of them would reach near-light speed, but the rest would accelerate seriously enough. For example, says Loeb, there could be more than a trillion stars in the observable universe that move at a speed of 1/10 of the speed of light, that is, about 107,000,000 kilometers per hour.

Since the movement of a single isolated star through intergalactic space will be quite dim, only powerful telescopes of the future, such as scheduled for launch in 2018, will be able to detect them. And even then, most likely, such telescopes will only be able to see stars that have reached our galactic environs. Most of the ejected stars most likely formed near the centers of galaxies and were ejected shortly after their birth. This means that they have been traveling for most of their lifetime. In this case, the age of the star will be approximately equal to the time that the star travels. By combining the travel time with the measured speed, astronomers can determine the distance from the star's home galaxy to our galactic neighborhood.

If astronomers can find stars that were ejected from one galaxy into different time, they can use them to measure the distance to this galaxy at different times in the past. By looking at how this distance has changed over time, it will be possible to determine how fast the universe is expanding.

two merging galaxies

Ultrafast wandering stars may have another use. When supermassive black holes collide with each other, they create ripples in space and time that display the intimate details of black hole mergers. The eLISA space telescope, scheduled to launch in 2028, will detect gravitational waves. Since ultrafast stars form when black holes are about to merge, they will act as a kind of signal that will point eLISA to possible sources of gravitational waves.

The existence of such stars would be one of the strongest signals that two supermassive black holes are on the cusp of merging, says astrophysicist Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz of the University of California, Santa Cruz. Although they may be difficult to detect, they will represent a fundamentally new tool for studying the universe.

In 4 billion years, our galaxy will collide with the Andromeda galaxy. The two supermassive black holes at their centers will merge, and the stars could also be ejected. Our Sun is too far from the center of galaxies to be ejected, but another star might hold habitable planets. And if people still exist by then, they could potentially land on this planet and go to another galaxy. Although, of course, this prospect is far, like no other.

Our universe is so huge that it is extremely difficult to comprehend its entire essence. We can try to mentally embrace its vast expanses, but each time our consciousness flounders only on the surface. Today we decided to bring some intriguing facts that are likely to cause bewilderment.

When we look into the night sky, we see the past

The first presented fact is able to amaze the imagination. When we look at the stars in the night sky, we see starlight from the past, a glow that travels through space many tens and even hundreds of light years before reaching the human eye. In other words, whenever a person glances at the starry sky, he sees how the luminaries looked once before. Yes, most bright Star Vega is located at a distance of 25 light years from Earth. And the light that we saw tonight, this star left 25 years ago.

In the constellation of Orion there is a remarkable star Betelgeuse. It is located at a distance of 640 light years from our planet. Therefore, if we look at it tonight, we see the light left during the Hundred Years War between England and France. However, other stars are even further away, therefore, looking at them, we are in contact with an even deeper past.

The Hubble telescope allows you to look back billions of years

Science is constantly evolving, and now humanity has a unique opportunity to consider very distant objects in the universe. And it's all thanks to NASA's remarkable engineering development of the Hubble Ultra-Deep-Field Telescope. It is thanks to this that NASA labs have been able to create some incredible images. So, using images from this telescope between 2003 and 2004, a tiny patch of sky containing 10,000 objects was displayed.

Incredibly, most of the objects displayed are young galaxies acting as a portal to the past. Looking at the resulting image, people are transported 13 billion years ago, which is only 400-800 million years after the Big Bang. It was he who, from a scientific point of view, laid the foundation of our universe.

Echoes of the Big Bang penetrate the old TV

In order to catch the cosmic echo that exists in the universe, we need to turn on the old tube TV. At that moment, while we have not yet tuned the channels, we will see black and white interference and characteristic noise, clicks or crackles. Know that 1% of this interference is made up of cosmic background radiation, the afterglow of the Big Bang.

Sagittarius B2 is a giant cloud of alcohol

Not far from the center of the Milky Way, at a distance of 20,000 light years from Earth, there is a molecular cloud consisting of gas and dust. The giant cloud contains 10 to 9 billion liters of vinyl alcohol. By discovering these important organic molecules, scientists have gained some clues to the first building blocks of life, as well as their derivatives.

There is a diamond planet

Astronomers have discovered the largest diamond planet in our galaxy. This massive chunk of crystal diamond Lucy is named after the Beatles song of the same name about diamond skies. The planet Lucy was discovered at a distance of 50 light years from Earth in the constellation of Centaurus. The diameter of the giant diamond is 25,000 miles, which is much larger than the Earth. The weight of the planet is estimated at 10 billion trillion carats.

The path of the sun around the Milky Way

The Earth, as well as other objects in the solar system, revolve around the Sun, while our luminary, in turn, revolves around the Milky Way. It takes the Sun 225 million years to complete one revolution. Do you know that the last time our luminary was in its current position in the galaxy, when the collapse of the super continent Pangea began on Earth, and the dinosaurs began their development.

The largest mountain in the solar system

There is a mountain on Mars called Olympus Olympus, which is a giant shield volcano (analogous to the volcanoes found on the Hawaiian Islands). The height of the object is 26 kilometers, and its diameter stretches for 600 kilometers. For comparison: Everest, the largest peak of the Earth, is three times smaller than its counterpart from Mars.

Rotation of Uranus

Did you know that Uranus rotates relatively to the Sun practically "lying on its side", unlike most other planets, which have less axial deviation? This gigantic deflection results in very long seasons, where each pole gets roughly 42 years of continuous sunlight in summer and a similar time of eternal darkness in winter. The last time the summer solstice was observed on Uranus was in 1944, the winter solstice is expected only in 2028.

Features of Venus

Venus is the slowest rotating planet in solar system. It rotates so slowly that it takes longer to make a complete revolution than it does to orbit. This means that a day on Venus is actually longer than its year. This planet is also home to constant high CO2 electronic storms. Venus is also shrouded in clouds of sulfuric acid.

The fastest objects in the universe

It is believed that neutron stars rotate the fastest in the universe. A pulsar is a special type of neutron star that emits a pulse of light, the speed of which allows astronomers to measure the speed of rotation. The fastest rotation is recorded at the pulsar, which rotates at more than 70,000 kilometers per second.

How much does a neutron star spoon weigh?

Along with an incredibly high rotation speed, neutron stars have an increased density of their particles. So, according to experts, if we could collect one tablespoon of matter concentrated in the center of a neutron star, and then weigh it, then the resulting mass would be approximately one billion tons.

Is there life outside of our planet?

Scientists do not leave attempts to identify an intelligent civilization in any other place in the Universe than the Earth. For these purposes, a special project called "Search for extraterrestrial intelligence" has been developed. The project includes the study of the most promising planets and satellites, such as Io (moon of Jupiter). There are indications that evidence of primitive life may be found there.

Scientists are also considering the theory that life on Earth could have happened more than once. If this is proven, then the prospects for other objects in the universe will be more than intriguing.

There are 400 billion stars in our galaxy

Undoubtedly, the sun has great importance for us. It is the source of life, the source of heat and light, the source of energy. But it's just one of the many stars that populate our galaxy, centered on the Milky Way. By latest estimates There are over 400 billion stars in our galaxy.

Scientists are also looking for intelligent life among the 500 million planets orbiting other stars, with indicators of remoteness from the Sun similar to the Earth. The research is based not only on the distance from the star, but also on temperature indicators, the presence of water, ice or gas, the right combination chemical compounds and other forms capable of building life, the same as on Earth.

Conclusion

So, in the entire galaxy, there are 500 million planets where life could potentially exist. So far, this hypothesis has no concrete evidence and is based only on assumptions, however, it cannot be refuted either.

Mankind has learned to build very powerful and high-speed objects, which are assembled for decades, in order to then achieve the most distant goals. "Shuttle" in orbit moves at a speed of more than 27 thousand kilometers per hour. A number of NASA space probes such as Helios 1, Helios 2 or Vodger 1 are powerful enough to reach the moon in a few hours.

☛ This article was translated from themysteriousworld.com English resource and, of course, is not entirely true. Many Russian and Soviet launch vehicles and spacecraft overcame the barrier of 11,000 km / h, but in the west, apparently, they are used to not noticing this. Yes, and there is quite a bit of information about our space objects in the public domain, in any case, we could not find out about the speed of many Russian devices.

Here is a list of the ten fastest objects man-made:

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rocket cart

Speed: 10,385 km/h

Rocket carts are actually used to test platforms used to accelerate experimental objects. During the tests, the bogie has a record speed of 10,385 km/h. These devices use sliding blocks instead of wheels so that you can develop such lightning speed. Rocket carts are propelled by rockets.

This external force gives initial acceleration to experimental objects. The carts also have long, over 3 km, straight sections of track. The rocket cart tanks are filled with lubricants, such as helium gas, so that this helps the experimental object develop the necessary speed. These devices are commonly used to accelerate rockets, aircraft parts, and aircraft rescue sections.

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NASA X-43A

Speed: 11,200 km/h

The ASA X-43A is an unmanned supersonic aircraft that is launched from a larger aircraft. In 2005, the NASA X-43A was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the fastest aircraft ever made. It has a top speed of 11,265 km/h, about 8.4 times faster than the speed of sound.

NASA X-13 A uses drop launch technology. First, this supersonic aircraft hits great height on a larger plane and then crashes. The required speed is achieved with the help of a launch vehicle. At the final stage, after reaching the set speed, NASA X-13 runs on its own engine.

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Shuttle "Columbia"

Speed: 27,350 km/h

The Columbia shuttle was the first successful reusable spacecraft in the history of space exploration. Since 1981, he has successfully completed 37 missions. The Columbia shuttle's record speed is 27,350 km/h. The ship exceeded its normal speed when it crashed on February 1, 2003.

The shuttle normally travels at 27,350 km/h to stay in Earth's lower orbit. At this speed, the crew of a spacecraft can see the sunrise and sunset multiple times in a single day.

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Shuttle Discovery

Speed: 28,000 km/h

Shuttle Discovery has a record number of successful missions, more than any other spaceship. Discovery has made 30 successful flights since 1984, and its speed record is 28,000 km/h. This is five times faster than the speed of a bullet. Sometimes spacecraft must travel faster than their usual speed of 27,350 km/h. It all depends on the chosen orbit and the height of the spacecraft.

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Apollo 10 lander

Speed: 39,897 km/h

The Apollo 10 launch was a rehearsal for NASA's mission before landing on the moon. During the return journey, on May 26, 1969, the Apollo 10 apparatus acquired a lightning speed of 39,897 km / h. The Guinness Book of World Records held the Apollo 10 lander speed record as the fastest manned vehicle speed record.

In fact, the Apollo 10 module needed such a speed to reach the Earth's atmosphere from lunar orbit. Apollo 10 also completed its mission in 56 hours.