Post by NexusOfLight on Mar 14, 2011 0:06:57 GMT -5
Yeah, so you're drivin' down the road, doin' your thing by being the responsible driver you are (yeah right) an' then outta no where, this dude cuts you off. Because you're such a good person, you're happy that nothing serious came of it, but at the same time, you kinda sorta wish the guy ends up somewhere.
Yes, I understand, it happens to the best of us. And while there's really nothing we can do to get around it, we can at least take pleasure in knowing that it's not just us earthlings that must undure the hardships of roadrage in bad traffic. That's right, this kinda stuff's happenin' in space as we speak.
You see there are certain stars out there that pretty much behave exactly like those speedsters on the road, not carin' 'bout nothin' 'cept where they're tryin' t'get to.
They're called runaway stars, and they're typically kicked into motion either through the supernova explosion of a companion star or through gravitational interactions with other stars in a cluster. The most recent runaway star to be captured on camera is Alpha Camelopardalis. Astronomers believe Alpha Cam could be zooming along at somewhere between 680 and 4,200 kilometers per second (between 1.5 and 9.4 million miles per hour). The speed of this star is so fast, a huge bow shock is being created as the star moves through space. Alpha Cam’s bow shock can’t be seen in visible light, but WISE’s (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) infrared detectors allow us to see this arc of heated gas and dust around the star.
Comics--particularly Marvel and DC--really like to play up how their heroes can move at incredible speeds in space. I just thought it was interesting to see how things in space really play out, and take a moment to sit back and wow at the spectacle.
So as a closing note, the next time you get cut off by some ol' crazy dude, take a moment to be thankful that at least you weren't cut off by a supergiant runaway star, because that would've been a lot worse. See, always a silver lining.
wise.ssl.berkeley.edu/gallery_AlphaCam.html
www.universetoday.com/83967/runaway-star-creates-quite-a-shock/
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110311131624.htm
Yes, I understand, it happens to the best of us. And while there's really nothing we can do to get around it, we can at least take pleasure in knowing that it's not just us earthlings that must undure the hardships of roadrage in bad traffic. That's right, this kinda stuff's happenin' in space as we speak.
You see there are certain stars out there that pretty much behave exactly like those speedsters on the road, not carin' 'bout nothin' 'cept where they're tryin' t'get to.
They're called runaway stars, and they're typically kicked into motion either through the supernova explosion of a companion star or through gravitational interactions with other stars in a cluster. The most recent runaway star to be captured on camera is Alpha Camelopardalis. Astronomers believe Alpha Cam could be zooming along at somewhere between 680 and 4,200 kilometers per second (between 1.5 and 9.4 million miles per hour). The speed of this star is so fast, a huge bow shock is being created as the star moves through space. Alpha Cam’s bow shock can’t be seen in visible light, but WISE’s (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) infrared detectors allow us to see this arc of heated gas and dust around the star.
Comics--particularly Marvel and DC--really like to play up how their heroes can move at incredible speeds in space. I just thought it was interesting to see how things in space really play out, and take a moment to sit back and wow at the spectacle.
So as a closing note, the next time you get cut off by some ol' crazy dude, take a moment to be thankful that at least you weren't cut off by a supergiant runaway star, because that would've been a lot worse. See, always a silver lining.
wise.ssl.berkeley.edu/gallery_AlphaCam.html
www.universetoday.com/83967/runaway-star-creates-quite-a-shock/
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110311131624.htm
