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Fast-Moving Pulsar

posted by LaminatorX on Friday February 21 2014, @10:30PM   Printer-friendly
from the it's-all-relative dept.

martyb writes:

"Scientists have discovered a pulsar (with an estimated mass of between 1.4 and 2 solar masses) traveling at an estimated 2.5 to 5 million mph (0.0035c to 0.007c). According to NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory:

Originally discovered with the European Space Agency satellite INTEGRAL, the pulsar is located about 60 light-years away from the center of the supernova remnant SNR MSH 11-61A in the constellation of Carina. Its implied speed is between 2.5 million and 5 million mph, making it one of the fastest pulsars ever observed.

By comparison, one of the fastest man-made objects is the Voyager-1 spacecraft, currently traveling at an estimated 38,100 mph relative to the sun, or approximately 0.000056c (5.6 x 10-5 c)."

 
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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by randmcnatt on Friday February 21 2014, @11:04PM

    by randmcnatt (671) on Friday February 21 2014, @11:04PM (#4662) Homepage
    IGR J11014-6103: Has the Speediest Pulsar Been Found? [harvard.edu] That was from June 28, 2012. There is a mention there of a report in The Astrophysical Journal [iop.org] but I couldn't find it there.

    Maybe they (astronomers) have confirmed the velocity, etc.
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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by randmcnatt on Friday February 21 2014, @11:28PM

    by randmcnatt (671) on Friday February 21 2014, @11:28PM (#4665) Homepage
    Hate to reply to my own post, but I knew it had to be out there somewhere.

    Is IGR J11014-6103 a pulsar with the highest known kick velocity? [iop.org]
    You can read the article or download a PDF.
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  • (Score: 1) by mrcoolbp on Friday February 21 2014, @11:31PM

    by mrcoolbp (68) <mrcoolbp@dev.soylentnews.org> on Friday February 21 2014, @11:31PM (#4666)

    Looks like the same one, and it seems you would be correct: in your linked article it explains that they need to confirm speed, and it looks like they were dead on already.

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