Here's an extraordinary sight to take in, courtesy of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. The probe sent back this rare image of what scientists call a runaway star. Astronomers believe it was set in motion either through the supernova explosion of a companion star or the result of a close encounter with some other stars in space. Read more
Just as some drivers obey the speed limit while others treat every road as if it were the autobahn, some stars move through space faster than others. NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, captured this image of the star Alpha Camelopardalis, or Alpha Cam in astronomer-speak, speeding through the sky like a motorcyclist zipping through rush-hour traffic. The supergiant star Alpha Cam is the bright star in the middle of this image, surrounded on one side by an arc-shaped cloud of dust and gas, coloured red in this infrared view. Such fast-moving stars are called runaway stars. The distance and speed of Alpha Cam is somewhat uncertain. It is probably somewhere between 1,600 and 6,900 light-years away and moving at an astonishing rate of somewhere between 680 and 4,200 kilometres per second. Read more