* Astronomy

Fast star first fled from a supernova, now the galaxy

The fastest known free-flying star in the galaxy is hightailing it out of here at 1200 kilometres a second after surviving its sibling star's death as a massive supernova. Clocking the star's speed could pin down the nature of this stellar explosion and shed light on the cosmic ruler by which we measure the universe.
Known as US 708, the star was first discovered around 10 years ago and appears to be the remnant of a red giant that has been stripped of all its hydrogen, leaving behind a dense, hot core of helium that is around a third of the mass of the sun.
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