Star Cluster Ejected From Galaxy At 2,000,000 MPH 133
William Robinson writes: "According to a new report, a globular cluster of several thousand stars (compressed into a space just a few dozen light-years apart) is being thrown out of galaxy M87. The cluster, named HVGC-1, is traveling at a rate of 2 million miles per hour. The discovery was made by Nelson Caldwell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and his team while studying the space around the supergiant elliptical galaxy M87. Caldwell and colleagues think M87 might have two supermassive black holes at its center. The star cluster wandered too close to the pair, which picked off many of the cluster's outer stars while the inner core remained intact. The black holes then acted like a slingshot, flinging the cluster away at a tremendous speed."
If it's not too much to ask (Score:5, Funny)
Could we please use real scientific units when talking about science?
How much is this in libraries of congress per fortnight?
Slingshot effect (Score:3, Funny)
"The black holes then acted like a slingshot, flinging the cluster away at a tremendous speed."
... and then the star cluster went back in time and saved the whales from extinction.
Re:If it's not too much to ask (Score:5, Funny)
Re:They didn't pay the rent? (Score:4, Funny)
For the last time (Score:4, Funny)
Re:They didn't pay the rent? (Score:5, Funny)
It was an old, run down section of the galaxy.
So, what are you trying to say? That black holes only live in the galactic ghetto?
Racist.
Re:Velocity (Score:5, Funny)
Only on Slashdot is a speed of 2*10^^6 MPH
1) expressed in imperial units
2) called "pedestrian" by some poster
Good stuff.
Re:Velocity (Score:5, Funny)
The Cluster replies, (Score:4, Funny)
"I've been thrown out of classier places than this!"