Fastest Rotating Star Found in Neighboring Galaxy
http://www.dearastronomer.com/
Artist's concept art featuring the fastest rotating star found to date. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)
The massive, bright young star, called VFTS 102, rotates at a million miles per hour, or 100 times faster than our sun does. Centrifugal forces from this dizzying spin rate have flattened the star into an oblate shape and spun off a disk of hot plasma, seen edge on in this view from a hypothetical planet. The star may have “spun up” by accreting material from a binary companion star. The rapidly evolving companion later exploded as a supernova. The whirling star lies 160,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.
Source:NASA Image of the Day Gallery
Ray Sanders is a Sci-Fi geek, astronomer and blogger. Currently researching variable stars at Arizona State University, he writes for Universe Today, The Planetary Society blog, and his own blog, Dear Astronomer
2012-12-04 08:07:05
Source: http://www.dearastronomer.com/2011/12/29/fastest-rotating-star-found-in-neighboring-galaxy/
Source:
