Finding runaway stars to help map dark matter in the Milky Way
Phys.org••technology
Key Points:
- Chinese astronomers conducted a large-volume search for hypervelocity stars (HVSs) using RR Lyrae stars, known for their predictable pulsations that help determine distances, to study the Milky Way's gravitational potential and matter distribution.
- Hypervelocity stars travel at speeds exceeding 1,000 km/s, allowing them to escape the Milky Way's gravitational pull, often resulting from interactions with the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* via the Hills mechanism.
- The team analyzed data from over 135,000 RR Lyrae stars, narrowing down to 165 potential hypervelocity candidates with reliable radial velocity measurements, ultimately identifying 87 stars with strong hypervelocity characteristics.
- These stars cluster around the Milky Way's center
