The Milky Way Galaxy, in which our Solar System is located, cannot contain all its stars. Some of them break into intergalactic space and go on an endless journey as far as possible from humanity, writes Science Alert.
A team of astronomers observing the movements of a group of massive stars noticed that some of them were moving differently than the rest of the galaxy. These are runaway stars leaving the Milky Way.
Now scientists cannot accurately determine the number of runaway stars that have gathered to “exit.” But astronomers are constantly finding more and more stars of this type. Currently, 175 such stars are known. But there may be much more of them. According to some estimates, about 10 million.
Astrophysicists still do not fully understand the exact reasons for the mass flight of stars from our galaxy. A new study has now been launched that should shed light on this phenomenon.
There are two competing theories that try to explain it. The first is the dynamic ejection scenario (DES) and the second is the binary supernova scenario (BSS).
The BSS scenario considers a situation where two stars exist as a pair. And when one of them explodes as a supernova, this explosion pushes the second star in a random direction. As a result, this impulse may be enough for the second star to escape from the galaxy.
In the DES scenario the situation looks less dramatic. When a star finds itself in a dense group of more massive stars, it is subject to gravitational influences that can radically change its normal direction of motion. This scenario is considered more plausible among scientists.
