Home / Editor's Pick /

Make a wish! Evidence of real shooting stars revealed

07:00
20 August 2023

Make a wish!
Evidence of real shooting stars revealed

Meteor showerThe Perseid Meteor Shower flying over Walkersaich, Germany earlier this week. - © Franz Kiefinger

With the Perseids active, we all know that shooting stars are actually meteors, but it turns out that shooting stars may be a real thing.

An observation program which ran from 2005 to 2014 has confirmed the existence of so-called hypervelocity stars which move at speeds of millions of miles per hour.

There is still little known about these stars, but the theory behind them has existed since 1988. Their origin appears to rest in binary star systems, these are pairs of stars gravitationally bound to, and in orbit with, each other.

In the theory, when these pairs move too close to a black hole, they break apart. When this happens, one star is shot at hyper-speed, sometimes beyond the limits of their own solar system.

Amazingly, the observational data has confirmed that the theory is true.

While observing the Milky Way’s halo, a star, HVS1, moving at 3.2 million km/h was spotted. Computer simulations predict that the other star was left orbiting the black hole which ripped the system apart.

A new theory suggests that if a planet orbiting a star, much like Earth and the Sun, were to encounter a black hole hypervelocity planets could also be a reality.

Fortunately for us, that does remain just a theory for now, but we do know that actual shooting stars are travelling across the universe.

Ryan Hathaway
More on the topic
Monday 12 May 2025

Across England and Wales

Thunderstorm risk to start the week
Thursday 1 May 2025

Beating a 1990 record

Hottest start to May on record
Thursday 1 May 2025

Temperatures falling

Cool down coming after Thursday high
All weather news
This might also interest you
Friday 2 May 2025

Thanks to a low in Iberia

Southern England warmer than Spain
Friday 16 May 2025

Breakfast brief

Warmer as clouds break for a time
Wednesday 21 May 2025

Breakfast brief

Generally more settled, some storm risk
All articles
Weather & Radar

www.weatherandradar.ie

facebooktwitteryouTubeContact uslinkList
Privacy Policy | Legal info