Rogue Stars Zip Through the Milky Way

Of the 20 hypervelocity stars found, only seven (in red) seem to originate from within the Milky Way. The remaining 13 (in yellow) appear to come from another galaxy altogether.Marchetti et al. 2018; (Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble) The Milky Way is apparently a hotspot for stars immigrating from other galaxies. In a new study published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, a trio of astronomers set out to find hypervelocity stars fleeing our galaxy, but surprisingly discovered most of the rapidly moving stars are actually barreling into the Milky Way from galaxies beyond. "Rather than flying away from the [Milky Way's] Galactic Center, most of the high velocity stars we spotted seem to be racing toward it," lead author Tommaso Marchetti, a Ph.D. candidate at Leiden Observatory, said in a press release. "These could be stars from another galaxy, zooming right through the Milky Way."