Scientists analyzed archival data from the WISE space telescope and made an important discovery. They have discovered a strange object that is flying through our galaxy at a staggering speed of 600 km/s (15% the speed of light). For comparison, the Sun rotates around the center of the Milky Way at a speed of 220 km/s. There are two options for what this strange object with unique properties could be. The results of the study have been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, reports Gizmodo. The discovered object was named CWISE J1249 and observations using ground-based telescopes allowed astronomers to get a little closer to solving the mystery of this ultra-fast object. It is not yet clear exactly what CWISE J1249 is. It can be either a small star or a brown dwarf, that is, an object that has the characteristics of stars and planets. Whatever it is, it is moving extremely fast and on a unique trajectory, and it looks like the object will soon leave the Milky Way and fly off into intergalactic space. This object not only flies through space at a speed of 600 km/s, but also has unusual properties. Analysis of the data showed that CWISE J1249 contains less iron and other metals than other known stars and brown dwarfs. This means that this object is one of the oldest in the Milky Way. So far, scientists are inclined to believe that CWISE J1249, which flies at a distance of about 400 light years from us, may be a hypervelocity star. And perhaps this is a subdwarf star. Such stars have a very small mass and a lower temperature than the Sun. Moreover, subdwarfs are the oldest stars in our galaxy. Scientists have created simulations based on existing data to figure out what caused this object to gain such enormous speed. CWISE J1249 could be part of a binary system. But when another star exploded as a supernova, it gave the object a strong push and it began to accelerate. Another explanation could be that CWISE J1249 was a member of a globular cluster, a closely related cluster of stars. Black holes are believed to exist at the centers of such star clusters. Sometimes they can create a double system. If CWISE J1249 came close to a binary black hole, then the complex dynamics of interactions between the objects could eject the star from the globular cluster. Astronomers will continue to monitor the strange object to determine exactly what it is and why it is traveling so fast that it could escape our galaxy. The post Strange object discovered flying through space at incredible speed appeared first on Anomalien.com.