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originally posted by: Vasa Croe
Here is an excerpt from the original article....
"Astronomers have found runaway stars before, but this is the first time we've found a runaway star cluster," says Nelson Caldwell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Caldwell is lead author on the study, which will be published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters and is available online.
The "HVGC" in HVGC-1 stands for hypervelocity globular cluster. Globular clusters are relics of the early universe. These groupings usually contain thousands of stars crammed into a ball a few dozen light-years across. The Milky Way galaxy is home to about 150 globular clusters. The giant elliptical galaxy M87, in contrast, holds thousands.
It took a stroke of luck to find HVGC-1. The discovery team has spent years studying the space around M87. They first sorted targets by color to separate stars and galaxies from globular clusters. Then they used the Hectospec instrument on the MMT Telescope in Arizona to examine hundreds of globular clusters in detail.
A computer automatically analyzed the data and calculated the speed of every cluster. Any oddities were examined by hand. Most of those turned out to be glitches, but HVGC-1 was different. Its surprisingly high velocity was real.
"We didn't expect to find anything moving that fast," says Jay Strader of Michigan State University, a co-author on the study.
Source
originally posted by: Lumpy79
I have two questions (not sarcastic):
1. How can they judge the speed of something coming toward us?
2. If it is 55m LYs away when they saw it, does that mean it was at that position a long time ago and would therefore be 55 million light years closer today?
originally posted by: wildespace
I just find it incredible that they spotted a star cluster from 55+ million light years away.
I thought that the only stars we can see are in our own galaxy and its satellites.
originally posted by: Serdgiam
a reply to: Cherryontop
You forgot the whole quote. Most importantly, the sentence directly before that! Here:
It has thrown an entire star cluster toward us at more than two million miles per hour. The newly discovered cluster, which astronomers named HVGC-1, is now on a fast journey to nowhere
source
Bolded parts added for emphasis. Rather funny, that. Wonder which one it is?
originally posted by: whatnext21
a reply to: cloaked4u
You have a link for that? And as for the cluster heading our way, we need a new sun anyway ours is sleeping.