Star cluster thrown out of galaxy at speed of more than 2 million mph....doom ON!

No doom or gloom here...just a large star cluster that has been hurled in the direction of Earth at 2 million miles per hour.....

Astronomers say they have discovered a star cluster that has been thrown in the direction of Earth at a speed of more than two million miles per hour.

Source

Soooo......yeah. They wing that story at us but don't give any details as to how long it would take to get here or anything, just that a large cluster of stars that is multiple light years across is hurtling towards us at 2 million miles per hour. Nothing to worry about though right?

Funny that they just throw that story out there......I would think the way this has been reported there are going to be a LOT of people saying WTF....how soon before it hits?

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: Vasa Croe



Soooo......yeah. They wing that story at us but don't give any details as to how long it would take to get here or anything, just that a large cluster of stars that is multiple light years across is hurtling towards us at 2 million miles per hour. Nothing to worry about though right?



Funny that they just throw that story out there......I would think the way this has been reported there are going to be a LOT of people saying WTF....how soon before it hits?

This is concerning ,, why would they let a good crisis go to waste...this doesn't fit their modus operandi

a reply to: Vasa Croe

It took a stroke of luck to find HVGC-1.

Probably not the word I would have used.

Hopefully we have a while before it gets here, a few million years would be nice.

Sounds fast, but M87 is 53.5 million light years away. So even if this cluster were travelling at 671 million miles an hour (the speed of light) it'd still take 53,500,000 years to get here.

A little bit more here:

www.sciencedaily.com...

If you just read the first paragraph, it says where it's heading.

The newly discovered cluster, which astronomers named HVGC-1, is now on a fast journey to nowhere. Its fate: to drift through the void between the galaxies for all time.

I'd say were safe. Party on Wayne, party on , Garth.

So they could be saying that it is heading in our general direction, NOT a direct hit.
Of all the doom porn, THIS isn't in any predictions or prophecies, so I'm not that worried about it.

Very Kool Find! S&F!

That might be a problem if its earth bound. its funny i clicked on link and it says white house press briefing on top of the article???

A weaponized star cluster...wow. Wonder what titan flung it at us?

Surely lots of things will happen to it between infinity and beyond.

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?

Its a helluva long way away though.

originally posted by: Cherryontop
If you just read the first paragraph, it says where it's heading.

The newly discovered cluster, which astronomers named HVGC-1, is now on a fast journey to nowhere. Its fate: to drift through the void between the galaxies for all time.

I'd say were safe. Party on Wayne, party on , Garth.

Yes, but prior to that statement they said:

The galaxy known as M87 has a fastball that would be the envy of any baseball pitcher. It has thrown an entire star cluster toward us at more than two million miles per hour.

But yeah...I don't think we have anything to worry about for a very long time.

a reply to: ~Lucidity

I hope we are able to record it hitting into another galaxy. How epic would that look like!

originally posted by: AndyMayhew
Sounds fast, but M87 is 53.5 million light years away. So even if this cluster were travelling at 671 million miles an hour (the speed of light) it'd still take 53,500,000 years to get here.

A little bit more here:

www.sciencedaily.com...

Nice...thanks for the clarity on how quickly this may get here....darn...no doom.....

originally posted by: ATF1886
That might be a problem if its earth bound. its funny i clicked on link and it says white house press briefing on top of the article???

Hmmm....I see that now too. Not sure if they are related...could just be a standard banner for announcements that appears on every page.

originally posted by: SirKonstantin
a reply to: ~Lucidity

I hope we are able to record it hitting into another galaxy. How epic would that look like!

Oh that would be SOOOOOO COOOOOOOLLL!

a reply to: Vasa Croe

What caused them to move so abruptly what Energy source? Or did they just start moving? Interesting find

a reply to: Vasa Croe

I KNOW RIGHT!!! Like the Death Star Exploding a Planet, BUT Millions All at the Same Instant!

originally posted by: Ophiuchus 13
a reply to: Vasa Croe

What caused them to move so abruptly what Energy source? Or did they just star moving? Interesting find

According to the article:

How did HVGC-1 get ejected at such a high speed? Astronomers aren't sure but say that one scenario depends on M87 having a pair of supermassive black holes at its core. The star cluster wandered too close to those black holes. Many of its outer stars were plucked off, but the dense core of the cluster remained intact. The two black holes then acted like a slingshot, flinging the cluster away at tremendous speed.

Hopefully...a reply to: Vasa Croe