Scientists discover the fastest stars ever seen in the Milky Way

Astronomers have detected the fastest runaway star ever seen in the Milky Way galaxy — the husk of a star launched at blistering speeds from a gigantic cosmic explosion.

The white dwarf, named J0927, was spotted hurtling through space at a stunning 5.112 million miles per hour (8,226,967 kilometers per hour).

Called a hypervelocity star because its speed will one day enable it to entirely escape the gravitational pull of the Milky Way, J0927 was spotted alongside three other fast-moving stars, all of which are thought to be the results of a Type Ia supernova — one of the most violent explosions in the universe. The researchers published their findings June 6 on the preprint server arXiv, and the findings have not yet been peer-reviewed.