Speeding Star Moving at 2.5 Million Mph Creates Stunning Shock Waves through Milky Way

A runaway star travelling at great speed can have a great impact on the surroundings as it dashes through the Milky Way Galaxy.

The impact of one such speeding star was captured by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The stunning image of the roguish runaway star released by the space agency shows how the star, dubbed Kappa Cassiopeiae (HD 2905), shocks the galaxy by creating dazzling arcs, as seen in the above picture.

This runaway star is a huge, hot supergiant that is travelling at a great speed of 2.5 million mph in relation to its nearby celestial objects. This star is surrounded by streaks of red glow.

The astronomers call these structures as bow shocks that are mostly observed before a fast moving massive star in the galaxy.

These 'Bow Shocks' are formed when the super magnetic field and the particles flowing away from the star bump into the diffused and invisible gas and dust that occupy the empty space between the stars. Based on how these shocks light up, the astronomers gain information on the conditions around the star as well as in the space. Slow moving stars like the sun have bow shocks that are invisible at all wavelengths of lights. But stars that travel at light breaking speed do create shocks that are visible using the infrared detectors of a telescope.

In the case of Kappa Cassiopeiae the shock is created about 4 light years ahead of the star, an indication of the strength of its impact. This star was seen at the same distance that we are from Proxima Centauri, the nearest star beyond Sun.

The Kappa Cassiopeiae bow shock appears in a bright red color and the patches of green visible in the image are due to the presence of carbon molecules called the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

"Delicate red filaments run through this infrared nebula, crossing the bow shock. Some astronomers have suggested these filaments may be tracing out features of the magnetic field that runs throughout our galaxy. Since magnetic fields are completely invisible themselves, we rely on chance encounters like this to reveal a little of their structure as they interact with the surrounding dust and gas," NASA explains on its official site.

In the Cassiopeia constellation, the star Kappa Cassiopeia is visible to the naked eye. The bow shocks are visible within the infrared light spectrum.