Artist’s impression of the fastest rotating star (artist’s impression)

This is an artist's concept of the fastest rotating star found to date. The massive, bright young star, called VFTS 102 rotates at about two million kilometres per hour. Centrifugal force from this dizzying spin rate has flattened the star into an oblate shape, and spun off a disk of hot plasma, seen edge on in this view from a hypothetical planet. The star may have "spun up" by accreting material from a binary companion star. The rapidly evolving companion later exploded as a supernova. The whirling star lies 160 000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.

Bildnachweis:

NASA/ESA and G. Bacon (STScI)

Über das Bild

ID:eso1147b
Typ:Illustration
Veröffentlichungsdatum:5. Dezember 2011 15:00
Dazugehörige Veröffentlichungen:eso1147
Größe:3300 x 2550 px

Über das Objekt

Name:VFTS 102
Typ:Local Universe : Star : Spectral Type : O
Kategorie:Illustrations
Stars

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