Mystery Object Flies Through Galaxy At A Million Miles Per Hour
A team of NASA scientists have just revealed that they have observed an unknown sphere hurtling through the Milky Way galaxy. While there are countless objects either in constant orbit or passing through this part of the universe, such a discovery might not seem that unusual. But what makes this mystery object so intriguing is that it’s traveling at speeds that exceed one million miles per hour.
A Name That Rolls Right Off The Tongue
The Backyard Worlds Planet 9 project is responsible for the discovery. From 2009 to 2011, scientists assigned to this endeavor used images from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Explorer (WISE) mission to study remote regions of the Milky Way. When NASA scientists joined the research, the mystery object that was captured over a decade ago has since been given a little bit of background information that may lead to similar discoveries in the future.
The mystery object, which NASA has officially named CWISE J124909.08+362116.0, is believed to have once traveled alongside another object. These binary pairs are quite common in the Milky Way, but the division of them is a little more uncommon. NASA postulates that the fast-moving body is most likely one of smaller density and mass, making it fit the description of a brown dwarf.
A Brown Dwarf Defined
Brown dwarfs are small stars that do not possess the density and mass to generate nuclear fusion, a quality that is akin to Earth’s sun. This leads scientists to believe that the partner that the mystery object once was attached to was a white dwarf that erupted into a supernova. The amount of energy released from a supernova would have been enough to project a nearby object away from it at high speeds.
Not A New Creation
The mystery object isn’t a new creation, in spite of only being known to humankind for a short amount of time. The W. M. Keck Observatory in Maunakea, Hawaii compiled data and observations that revealed the age of it to be billions of years old and making it among one of the “first generations of stars in our galaxy.” If that’s the case, this would mean that the mystery object’s origins are from another source altogether.
Globular Clusters And Black Holes May Be At Play
NASA states this information, if true, would mean that the mystery object is from what is known as a globular cluster. These areas have up to millions of stars in them, many of which will go supernova at some point during their lifespan. After a supernova burns out, the black hole that remains, if in close proximity to another recently formed black hole, could have generated enough force to rocket the body out of the globular cluster at an unimaginably high rate of speed.
The odds of this being the cause are a bit more remote, but some at NASA affirm that this is the best explanation of the mystery object’s abnormally excessive speed.
Figuring Out Age And Origin Of The Object
Of course, if NASA scientists are ever able to get a positive reading on the mystery object’s elemental composition, this information could shed more light on the exact age and origin of the million-mile-per-hour traveler that is shooting across the Milky Way galaxy.
Sources: NASA
