"Take Kappa Cassiopeiae, for example. It\u2019s what\u2019s called a runaway star, screaming through space at a terrifying 1,100 kilometers per second \u2026 2.5 million miles per hour! As it happens, it\u2019s also a blue supergiant, a massive, hot star. These kinds of stars tend to blow out a fast wind of subatomic particles, like the solar wind on steroids. As the star plows through space, its wind rams into the material around it, creating a vast shock wave like air off the nose of a supersonic fighter jet"<\/p>\n
Gorgeous and Shocking: Bow Wave of a Runaway Star<\/a><\/p>\n Import\u00e9 de Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" "Take Kappa Cassiopeiae, for example. It\u2019s what\u2019s called a runaway star, screaming through space at a terrifying 1,100 kilometers per second \u2026 2.5 million miles per hour! As it happens, it\u2019s also a blue supergiant, a massive, hot star. These … Continue reading ![](\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/content\/dam\/slate\/blogs\/bad_astronomy\/2014\/02\/23\/spitzer_kappa_cas_354.jpg\/_jcr_content\/renditions\/cq5dam.web.1280.1280.jpeg\")
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