Zeta Ophiuchi Tears Through Space

Runaway Star Plows Through Space

ScienceDaily (Jan. 24, 2011) — A massive star flung away from its former companion is plowing through space dust. The result is a brilliant bow shock, seen as a yellow arc in a new image from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/cff9795b3312.jpg[/atsimg] Courtesy: NASA, JPL

What an incredible image.

The star is moving through space so fast and it's winds so powerful that it is creating what is tantamount to(but not quite the same as) a pressure wave pushing water. This effect can only be seen by sensitive IR equipment aboard WISE.


NASA/JPL

Zeta Ophiuchi once orbited around an even heftier star. But when that star exploded in a supernova, Zeta Ophiuchi shot away like a bullet. It's traveling at a whopping 54,000 miles per hour (or 24 kilometers per second), and heading toward the upper left area of the picture.

This makes it one of the coolest stories NASA has put out thus far. How cool is that? This is total geek porn!

Proj it is cool provided the runaway (24 kilometres a second) isnt heading for your home planet

reply to post by zazzafrazz


Alien scum can kiss my bum!


We're at war here Zazz. What are you a Glick lover?

Of course, if this were headed right for Earth we'd get a cool show before being torn apart/or vaporized/or super-compressed...

Does anyone have some spare WISE goggles that they can send me so I can see this in my backyard? It would be so much cooler to see it with my own eyes (goggle enabled that is), But Zazz is right, only cool if not headed directly at me.

(awaiting the WISE-surfboard post next)

It's Nibiru! (LOL, sorry, couldn't resist----you didn't really want a thread free of that word, right?)

Seriously, though, awesome post. Nature is so gorgeous and amazing, and it's awesome that it's even more so in space, where you might think the lack of "stuff" everywhere like the Earth has would make it boring, but quite the opposite! There's an amazing beauty to the minimalism of space.

Cool, it looks like a giant eye.

More proof that space is filled with dust.

Even if it were coming directly at us, going at its current speed, it would take thousands of years to get here. By the time it arrived we would be either be extinct, have developed the technology to deal with it, or evolved on to some higher being, to which the Earth, being the planet where our ancestors lived when they were in physical form, is only a sentimental memory.

Well considering the entire Galaxy is spinning to a degree that I cannot even fathom I wonder why they think the Star is dashing out of there and not the other way around.

To me it appears just as our System must look from afar; a highly ionized Interstellar Cloud is bearing down on that Sun much as it is happening here. Sure looks like the Fluff to me. Maybe soon ours will light up too and someone will say that our Sun is shooting out of here! Maybe we are seeing what they are seeing as they look across the expanse at us?

Originally posted by 00nunya00
It's Nibiru! (LOL, sorry, couldn't resist----you didn't really want a thread free of that word, right?)

Seriously, though, awesome post. Nature is so gorgeous and amazing, and it's awesome that it's even more so in space, where you might think the lack of "stuff" everywhere like the Earth has would make it boring, but quite the opposite! There's an amazing beauty to the minimalism of space.

www.daviddarling.info...
en.wikipedia.org...

Zeta Ophiuchi (ζ Oph, ζ Ophiuchi) is a star located in the constellation of Ophiuchus

Wikipedia says this star resides in Ophiuchus, maybe it was slung out from there? This article says it needs expansion on the subject. It must have been slung out from there. They say it's a runaway star, it cannot be a runaway if it has a home.

www.nasa.gov...

Zeta Ophiuchi is actually a very massive, hot, bright blue star plowing its way through a large cloud of interstellar dust and gas.
Astronomers theorize that this stellar juggernaut was likely once part of a binary star system with an even more massive partner

The Blue star? Not Niburu, didn't the Hopi say something about a blue star? They called it Kachina
I couldn't resist either.

Hopefully, this isn't it. I wonder what direction it's traveling. Hopefully away from us.
I wonder when it lost its partner star? And when they first discovered and named it.
I'd like to know a lot more about this runaway blue star.

On the plus side, it is 458 light years away from us.

Nice find.
That reminds me of that ribbon thing from the star trek movie.

Ophiucus is protrayed wrestling with a snake....looks like the star and the energy are like the depiction suggests....

reply to post by Drala


I didn't know that..

Could you expand on the myth a little?

reply to post by projectvxn


Ophiuchus is a large constellation located around the celestial equator. Its name is from the Greek Ὀφιοῦχος "serpent-bearer", and it is commonly represented as a man grasping the snake that is represented by the constellation Serpens. Ophiuchus was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations. It was formerly referred to as Serpentarius (English pronunciation: /ˌsɜrpənˈtɛəriəs/; also Anguitenens), a Latin word meaning the same as its current name.

that is only the tip of the iceberg with this fellow

Zeta Ophiuchi just couldn't handle the pressure of being a teenager in a galaxy of old farts. Hence the reason he bolted so quickly. Maybe he should call Boys Town Hotline and get some help? J/k!

If there are beings out there nearby, I bet they got one hell of a show! I wonder if it has any planets orbiting it and if they are still orbiting it as it moves? Or did the planets get tossed out into the oblivion too?