Hubble Detects Giant 'Cannonballs' Shooting from Star
Thursday, October 6, 2016 - 12:21
in Astronomy & Space
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has detected superhot blobs of gas, each twice as massive as the planet Mars, being ejected near a dying star. The host star, called V Hydrae, is a bloated red giant, residing 1,200 light-years away, which has probably shed at least half of its mass into space during its death throes. But, astronomers believe the plasma balls were launched by an unseen companion star orbiting the red giant. This stellar "cannon fire" has continued once every 8.5 years for at least the past 400 years.