Fastest Star Observed @ 3% Light Speed

This is actually a couple years outdated & may have already been noted,
but listening to NOVA's "Monster of the Milky Way" again, about the massive black hole at the center of the Galaxy it struck me when a scientist noted that stars were orbiting it at speeds of 10+ million miles per hour. Doing ballpark math in my head i thought that is a significant chunk of the speed of light.
It takes infinite energy to move matter to the speed of light,
imagine an entire star, larger than the Sun, moving a good fraction of the speed of light.
I wonder if strange effects might happen with it.

Well anyway it wowed me.

The scientists followed stars that orbit perilously close to the galaxy's center and found that the fastest star's top speed was

3 percent of the speed of light—about 20 million miles per hour. That's a startling speed for a globe of gas far
bigger than our sun, and it convinced even the skeptics that a supermassive black hole was responsible.

www.smithsonianmag.com...

Imagine the gravity waves that thing must be kicking off. Like blips on a radar screen or something. I wonder if weird, perceptible time stretches as each ripple comes in this star's wake for a more stable orbiting star?
Like you were living on a nearby planet, & had to make slight adjustments for when this thing went whizzing by. Like everything got stretched a little longer along one axis.

The peak of speed is probably right at the hair pin turn right around near the black hole & the speed slower on the rest of the orbit, but that puppy must be really skooting.

Imagine the speed/gravity boost you could get from slingshotting around & past that star.

Wow, what a ride!

fasten your seatbelts folks.

Does the gravity slingshot taken from planets, like Jupiter come from their orbit around the sun, or is simply the pull into & then past their gravity well alone simple sufficient for accelerated speed? Maybe one could use the relatively 'stationary' blackhole itself, not sure about that.

Maybe superluminal travel will include using a blackhole & neutron star chart for fastest, lowest energy demanding travel by slingshoting past these things. Maybe their gravity wells extend into hyperspace like landmarks to guide one's travel.

[edit on 1-6-2010 by slank]

Very interesting post.

I wonder how close you could get to the huge black hole to get the acceleration benefit without being pulled in?

i like the idea of a star map being made up of nuetron stars and blackholes, but youd have to figure out a way to stop the insane G forces.

the sling shots around the moon are how high? Imagine the G's one of those monsters would spit out, and youd have to be god damn sure you got the speed to get out of it hahaha.

[edit on 1-6-2010 by epitaph.one]

Originally posted by emsed1
Very interesting post.

I wonder how close you could get to the huge black hole to get the acceleration benefit without being pulled in?

The boundary is called the Schwarzchild radius. It's calculated by 2GM/c^2 with G being the gravitation coefficient, M being the mass of the object, and c being the speed of light in a vacuum.

Originally posted by RestingInPieces

Originally posted by emsed1
Very interesting post.

I wonder how close you could get to the huge black hole to get the acceleration benefit without being pulled in?

The boundary is called the Schwarzchild radius. It's calculated by 2GM/c^2 with G being the gravitation coefficient, M being the mass of the object, and c being the speed of light in a vacuum.

Awesome!

How much gas would I need in a 1977 Ford Pinto to pull it off?

I like your thinking, If you had the computational power needed for the math could it not be possible to continually travel around a black-hole and a neutron star so that your speed would gradually build up until you approached a speed that would make interstellar travel possible? Then maybe using the same method to slow down.

Also if you had a cluster of neutron stars/ black-holes then you could kind of pinball your way through them until you got your speed up.

This means you don't need huge power sources, you just surf black-holes and stars.

S&F

I've posted something with the same resulting thoughts.

I think you will like this article.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Using a black hole to slingshot to super speeds could be infinitely useful in space exploration and long distance travel.

The downside:

You'd have to bring back two humpback whales when you're done.

King

Originally posted by Kingalbrect79
Using a black hole to slingshot to super speeds could be infinitely useful in space exploration and long distance travel.

The downside:

You'd have to bring back two humpback whales when you're done.

King

Hahahaha

It would also be logical to equip your vehicle with seat belts.

And a cappuccino machine.