OIR Research: Hypervelocity Stars

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics


	OIR Research: Hypervelocity Stars

	In 2005 Smithsonian astronomers discovered the first "hypervelocity star:" a massive star whose 2 million mph velocity can be explained only by ejection from the Galaxy's massive black hole. This "outcast" star has been thrown out of the Milky Way and is destined to drift in the emptiness of intergalactic space. Smithsonian astronomers are leading the discovery of new hypervelocity stars. Hypervelocity stars tell us about the types of stars orbiting near the central black hole, and the history of stellar interactions with the central black hole. General Info & Podcasts 2005 New York Times article. 2006 New Scientist podcast. 2007 podcast of American Astronomical Society invited talk. 2007 Harvard University Bok Prize Lecture 2008 Smithsonian Secretary's Research Prize 2009 Observatory Night talk 2010 Sackler Conference talk 2011 Astronomy Beat (published by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific) Scientific Publications A Galactic Center Origin for HE 0437-5439, the Hypervelocity Star near the Large Magellanic Cloud .pdf The Anisotropic Spatial Distribution of Hypervelocity Stars .pdf MMT Hypervelocity Star Survey .pdf Hypervelocity Stars: From the Galactic Center to the Halo .pdf Hypervelocity Stars. III. The Space Density and Ejection History of Main Sequence Stars from the Galactic Center .pdf Hypervelocity Stars. II. The Bound Population .pdf Hypervelocity Stars. I. The Spectroscopic Survey .pdf A Successful Targeted Search for Hypervelocity Stars .pdf Discovery of an Unbound Hypervelocity Star in the Milky Way Halo .pdf Random Links Hypervelocity stars also appear in Peter Schneider's textbook on "Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology, An Introduction", in Fulvio Melia's textbook The Galactic Supermassive Black Hole, in Paul McAuley's sci-fi book Eternal Light, and in an original song "Runaway Star" by Paul Hankinson. People Warren Brown, Margaret Geller, Scott Kenyon, Michael Kurtz		Hypervelocity stars are exiled to drift in the depths of intergalactic space (artist's conception). Learn more ...