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Star Cluster Ejected From Galaxy At 2,000,000 MPH

Posted by Soulskill on from the get-out-and-stay-out dept.

William Robinson writes: "According to a new report, a globular cluster of several thousand stars (compressed into a space just a few dozen light-years apart) is being thrown out of galaxy M87. The cluster, named HVGC-1, is traveling at a rate of 2 million miles per hour. The discovery was made by Nelson Caldwell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and his team while studying the space around the supergiant elliptical galaxy M87. Caldwell and colleagues think M87 might have two supermassive black holes at its center. The star cluster wandered too close to the pair, which picked off many of the cluster's outer stars while the inner core remained intact. The black holes then acted like a slingshot, flinging the cluster away at a tremendous speed."

9 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. If it's not too much to ask by Arancaytar · · Score: 5, Funny

    Could we please use real scientific units when talking about science?

    How much is this in libraries of congress per fortnight?

    1. Re:If it's not too much to ask by stewsters · · Score: 5, Funny

      Remember that 1 lightyear = 1.03461597 × 1014 American football fields.

  2. Slingshot effect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    "The black holes then acted like a slingshot, flinging the cluster away at a tremendous speed."

    ... and then the star cluster went back in time and saved the whales from extinction.

  3. Re:They didn't pay the rent? by jfdavis668 · · Score: 3, Funny

    It was an old, run down section of the galaxy.

  4. For the last time by Lucas123 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Don't come back!

  5. Re:They didn't pay the rent? by CanHasDIY · · Score: 5, Funny

    It was an old, run down section of the galaxy.

    So, what are you trying to say? That black holes only live in the galactic ghetto?

    Racist.

    --
    An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
  6. Re:Velocity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Only on Slashdot is a speed of 2*10^^6 MPH
    1) expressed in imperial units
    2) called "pedestrian" by some poster
    Good stuff.

  7. Re:Velocity by LeadSongDog · · Score: 4, Funny

    So that would be 48.5 megaSmoot/semester, based on the conventional 39 hour semester

    --
    Oh, I'm sorry sir, I thought you were referring to me, Mr. Wensleydale.
  8. The Cluster replies, by PPH · · Score: 3, Funny

    "I've been thrown out of classier places than this!"

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.