Year: 2007
Type: article
Abstract: Hypervelocity stars (HVSs) are stars ejected completely out of the Milky Way by three-body interactions with the massive black hole in the Galactic center. We describe 643 new spectroscopic observations from our targeted survey for HVSs. We find a significant (3.5 σ) excess of B-type stars with large velocities +275 km s -1 < v rf < 450 km s -1 and distances d > 10 kpc that are most plausibly explained as a new class of HVSs: stars ejected from the Galactic center on bound orbits. If a Galactic center ejection origin is correct, the distribution of HVSs on the sky should be anisotropic for a survey complete to a fixed limiting apparent magnitude. The unbound HVSs in our survey have a marginally anisotropic distribution on the sky, consistent with the Galactic center ejection picture.
Source: The Astrophysical Journal
DOI: 10.1086/513595
Authors: Warren R. Brown, Margaret J. Geller, Scott J. Kenyon, Michael J. Kurtz, Benjamin C. Bromley
Institutions: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, University of Utah
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2005929368