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APOD
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Runaway Star
Explanation: Runaway stars are massive stars traveling rapidly through interstellar space. Like a ship plowing through the interstellar medium , runaway star HD 77581 has produced this graceful arcing bow wave or “bow shock” - compressing the gaseous material in its path. Located near the centre of this European Southern Observatory photograph , HD 77581 itself is so bright that it saturates the sensitive camera and produces the spiky cross shape . This star is over 6,000 light-years away in the constellation Vela , and appears to move at over 50 miles per second. What force could set this star in motion? A clue to the answer may lie in its optically invisible companion star, an X-ray bright pulsar known as Vela X-1. This pulsar is clearly the remnant of a supernova explosion ... which seems to have given this massive star and its companion a mighty kick !
| Date | November 27, 1999 |
|---|---|
| Credit | Credit: L. Kaper et. al. (ESO) |
| Authors & editors: | Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) |
| A service of: |
ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U. |