Produced by: Tarun Mishra Designed by: Manoj Kumar
Using the European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescope, astronomers have discovered 55 runaway stars escaping from a dense young star cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), marking the first time so many stars have been observed fleeing a single cluster.
The runaway stars are being ejected from R136; a cluster located about 158,000 light-years away in the LMC. This cluster contains hundreds of thousands of stars, including some of the largest known, with masses up to 300 times that of the sun.
The runaway stars were expelled in two separate bursts over the last two million years. Some of these stars are moving at speeds exceeding 62,000 mph (100,000 kph), which is roughly 80 times the speed of sound on Earth.
Credit: NASA/ ESA
The discovery was made by a team led by University of Amsterdam researcher Mitchel Stoop. Gaia, which precisely tracks billions of stars, allowed astronomers to increase the known number of runaway stars by a factor of 10.
The stars were likely ejected due to gravitational interactions within the dense cluster. Crowded newborn stars may disrupt each other’s orbits, resulting in some being flung out of the cluster. The second ejection event, which occurred 200,000 years ago, had distinct characteristics from the first.
Credit: NASA/ ESA
Some of the massive runaway stars are expected to end their lives in supernova explosions, leaving behind black holes or neutron stars. These “cosmic missiles” could travel up to 1,000 light-years from their origin point.
Credit: NASA/ ESA
The second ejection event is believed to have been triggered by an interaction with a nearby cluster discovered in 2012. Researchers suggest that the two clusters may eventually merge.
Credit: NASA/ ESA
The findings were published on October 9 in the journal Nature. The team’s research not only sheds light on star formation dynamics but also tests Gaia’s ability to map distant stars, offering insights into the broader impact of massive stars on galactic evolution.