PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Much faster than a speeding bullet, planets and stars escape the Milky Way

Much faster than a speeding bullet, planets and stars escape the Milky Way
2012-04-02
(Press-News.org) Idan Ginsburg, a graduate student in Dartmouth's Department of Physics and Astronomy, studies some of the fastest moving objects in the cosmos. When stars and their orbiting plants wander too close to the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, their encounter with the black hole's gravitational force can either capture them or eject them from the galaxy, like a slingshot, at millions of miles per hour.

Although their origin remains a mystery and although they are invisible, black holes found at galaxy centers make their presence known through the effects they have on their celestial surroundings. The Milky Way's black hole, a monster with a mass four million times that of the Sun, feeds on some of its neighbors and thrusts others out into the intergalactic void.

It's the expelled objects that "become hypervelocity planets and stars," say Ginsburg. "What we learn from these high-speed travelers has significance for our understanding of planetary formation and evolution near the central black hole."

Ginsburg, along with his doctoral adviser Professor Gary Wegner, and Harvard Professor Abraham Loeb are publishing a paper in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. It describes how the team constructed computer simulations of these hypervelocity bodies as a means to understanding the dynamics involved. "The paper is a 'call to arms' for other astronomers to join the search," Ginsburg announces.

Born in Israel, Ginsburg came to the United States as a child and grew up as a Midwesterner. After high school in Lawrence, Kan., graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and studies at Harvard, Ginsburg came to Dartmouth almost five years ago.

For the origin of hypervelocity bodies, Ginsburg and his colleagues point to the close interaction of a binary star system—two stars orbiting a common center—with a massive black hole. The likely scenario is the black hole draws one of the pair into its gravitational well while simultaneously ejecting the other at 1.5 million miles per hour. More than 20 of these hypervelocity stars have been identified in the Milky Way.

"You can also have a lone hypervelocity planet, peeled away from its star and ejected from the black hole. The same mechanism that produces a hypervelocity star produces a hypervelocity planet," Ginsburg explains. "But because it is so small and traveling up to 30 million miles per hour, it cannot be seen. That doesn't mean they won't eventually be found, but currently it is beyond the limitations of our technology."

Ginsburg contends, however, that you could see a hypervelocity star ejected with planets still in tow. In this case, you might be able to see the planets as they cross in front of the star like an eclipse, appearing as a dip in its light curve. While the paper discusses the lone hypervelocity planets, it also draws attention to the planets rotating around the hypervelocity stars.

"That is something that we can detect now," Ginsburg says, "which I think makes it very interesting. … As of yet nobody has looked for these planets transiting hypervelocity stars. We are telling people in this paper that you should look for these."



INFORMATION:


[Attachments] See images for this press release:
Much faster than a speeding bullet, planets and stars escape the Milky Way

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Greater traumatic stress linked with elevated inflammation in heart patients

Greater traumatic stress linked with elevated inflammation in heart patients
2012-04-02
Greater lifetime exposure to the stress of traumatic events was linked to higher levels of inflammation in a study of almost 1,000 patients with cardiovascular disease led by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco. In the first study to examine the relationship between cumulative traumatic stress exposure and inflammation, the scientists found that the more traumatic stress a patient was exposed to over the course of a lifetime, the greater the chances the patient would have elevated levels of inflammatory markers ...

Exlar Tritex II DC Actuators Deliver Superior Performance for Process Control Valves in Hazardous Areas

Exlar Tritex II DC Actuators Deliver Superior Performance for Process Control Valves in Hazardous Areas
2012-04-02
Exlar Corporation announces its innovative line of Tritex II DC actuators are now CSA certified and in compliance with CSA 139 (Valve Actuator Standard). The actuators accommodate applications requiring CSA Class I, Division 2 Groups A, B, C and D certification--making them suitable for hazardous location operation. Tritex II DC actuators integrate a servo drive, digital position controller, brushless motor and linear or rotary actuator in one compact, sealed package. Linear actuators employ Exlar's patented inverted roller screw mechanism, seamlessly converting rotary ...

SMU's David Blackwell touts nationwide geothermal energy potential at Capitol Hill science briefing

SMUs David Blackwell touts nationwide geothermal energy potential at Capitol Hill science briefing
2012-04-02
DALLAS (SMU) – SMU Geothermal energy expert David Blackwell gave a Capitol Hill briefing Tuesday, March 27, on the growing opportunities for geothermal energy production in the United States, calling "unconventional" geothermal techniques a potential game changer for U.S. energy policy. Blackwell's presentation outlined the variety of techniques available for geothermal production of electricity, the accessibility of unconventional geothermal resources across vast portions of the United States and the opportunities for synergy with the oil and gas industry. Also speaking ...

Physicists explain the collective motion of particles called fermions

2012-04-02
Some people like company. Others prefer to be alone. The same holds true for the particles that constitute the matter around us: Some, called bosons, like to act in unison with others. Others, called fermions, have a mind of their own. Different as they are, both species can show "collective" behavior -- an effect similar to the wave at a baseball game, where all spectators carry out the same motion regardless of whether they like each other. Scientists generally believed that such collective behavior, while commonplace for bosons, only appeared in fermions moving in ...

Specialty Hospital of Washington Newly Licensed Registered Nurse Internship Program

2012-04-02
Specialty Hospital Of Washington (SHW) began its second Registered Nurse Internship Program earlier this year. Like most prominent hospitals, SHW saw the need to assist graduating nurses make the transition from school to professional clinical settings. SHW's innovative approach is designed to prepare nurses for rewarding careers. The Internship Program assists nurses with the mastery of clinical skills, as well as managing and organizing increased and complex patient care assignments, communicating with physicians and delegating tasks during the transition period from ...

UCLA Engineering researchers use electricity to generate alternative fuel

2012-04-02
Imagine being able to use electricity to power your car — even if it's not an electric vehicle. Researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have for the first time demonstrated a method for converting carbon dioxide into liquid fuel isobutanol using electricity. Today, electrical energy generated by various methods is still difficult to store efficiently. Chemical batteries, hydraulic pumping and water splitting suffer from low energy-density storage or incompatibility with current transportation infrastructure. In a study published ...

Oscillating gel acts like artificial skin, giving robots potential ability to 'feel'

2012-04-02
PITTSBURGH—Sooner than later, robots may have the ability to "feel." In a paper published online March 26 in Advanced Functional Materials, a team of researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) demonstrated that a nonoscillating gel can be resuscitated in a fashion similar to a medical cardiopulmonary resuscitation. These findings pave the way for the development of a wide range of new applications that sense mechanical stimuli and respond chemically—a natural phenomenon few materials have been able to mimic. A team ...

The MIRI has 2 faces

The MIRI has 2 faces
2012-04-02
A short new video takes viewers behind the scenes with the MIRI or the Mid-Infrared Instrument that will fly on-board NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. MIRI is a state-of-the-art infrared instrument that will allow scientists to study distant objects in greater detail than ever before. The three minute and 19 second video called "The MIRI Has Two Faces" is part of an on-going video series about the Webb telescope called "Behind the Webb." It was produced at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md. and takes viewers behind the scenes with scientists ...

NASA's TRMM satellite sees newborn Tropical Storm Pakhar's heavy rain

NASAs TRMM satellite sees newborn Tropical Storm Pakhars heavy rain
2012-04-02
System 96W intensified overnight and became Tropical Storm Pakhar during the morning hours on March 29. NASA's TRMM satellite measured rainfall rates within the storm, and noticed areas of heavy rain west of the center as the storm continued to strengthen. NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite passed over Pakhar on March 29, and saw that it was generating mostly light to moderate rainfall around the entire system, with areas of heavy rain in the southwestern and northeastern quadrants. Light to moderate rainfall rates were between .78 to 1.57 inches ...

This Latest Update Streamlines Many of the Daily Tasks Our Clients Rely on so They Can Spend More Time Focusing on Selling Commercial Real Estate and Notes

2012-04-02
RealCapitalMarkets.com, LLC (RCM1), the leading provider of a leading provider of marketing and transaction management software for commercial property and note sales, announces updates to the RCM1 platform designed to allow clients to synchronize buyer data with their internal customer relationship management (CRM) systems, speed up execution of key functionality such as uploading and downloading documents, and provide additional time-saving features to clients and investors. "This latest update streamlines many of the daily tasks our clients rely on so they can ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Underserved youth less likely to visit emergency department for concussion in Ontario, study finds

‘Molecular shield’ placed in the nose may soon treat common hay fever trigger

Beetles under climate stress lay larger male eggs: Wolbachia infection drives adaptive reproduction strategy in response to rising temperature and CO₂

Groundbreaking quantum study puts wave-particle duality to work

Weekly injection could be life changing for Parkinson’s patients

Toxic metals linked to impaired growth in infants in Guatemala

Being consistently physically active in adulthood linked to 30–40% lower risk of death

Nerve pain drug gabapentin linked to increased dementia, cognitive impairment risks

Children’s social care involvement common to nearly third of UK mums who died during perinatal period

‘Support, not judgement’: Study explores links between children’s social care involvement and maternal deaths

Ethnic minority and poorer children more likely to die in intensive care

Major progress in fertility preservation after treatment for cancer of the lymphatic system

Fewer complications after additional ultrasound in pregnant women who feel less fetal movement

Environmental impact of common pesticides seriously underestimated

The Milky Way could be teeming with more satellite galaxies than previously thought

New study reveals surprising reproductive secrets of a cricket-hunting parasitoid fly

Media Tip Sheet: Symposia at ESA2025

NSF CAREER Award will power UVA engineer’s research to improve drug purification

Tiny parasitoid flies show how early-life competition shapes adult success

New coating for glass promises energy-saving windows

Green spaces boost children’s cognitive skills and strengthen family well-being

Ancient trees dying faster than expected in Eastern Oregon

Study findings help hone precision of proven CVD risk tool

Most patients with advanced melanoma who received pre-surgical immunotherapy remain alive and disease free four years later

Introducing BioEmu: A generative AI Model that enables high-speed and accurate prediction of protein structural ensembles

Replacing mutated microglia with healthy microglia halts progression of genetic neurological disease in mice and humans

New research shows how tropical plants manage rival insect tenants by giving them separate ‘flats’

Condo-style living helps keep the peace inside these ant plants

Climate change action could dramatically limit rising UK heatwave deaths

Annual heat-related deaths projected to increase significantly due to climate and population change

[Press-News.org] Much faster than a speeding bullet, planets and stars escape the Milky Way