/

Spinning star hurtling out of the Milky Way

New data from a runaway star sheds light on its origins.

Artist's impression of one large red star on the left, and another smaller star on the right stearling material from the first star.
This artist’s impression shows the explosion of a white dwarf in a Type Ia supernova, where the white dwarf's gravity steals material away from a nearby stellar companion. When the white dwarf reaches an estimated 1.4 times the current mass of the Sun, it can no longer sustain its own weight, and blows up. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech