'Rebel' stars revealed in Milky Way....

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From New Scientist:

Full story:
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996565

"'Rebel' stars revealed in Milky Way

14:44 21 October 04

NewScientist.com news service

Streams of "rebel" stars are blazing new trails to and from our galaxy's centre instead of travelling in circles around it, according to a new study of 6000 nearby stars. The stars appear to be nudged into their new grooves by the Milky Way's spiral arms.

About a trillion stars trace out a pinwheel that makes up the Milky Way. Most of the stars in the five main spiral arms take more or less circular paths around the galactic centre. The Sun, located midway down one of the arms, takes about 100 million years to complete one loop.

Now, astronomers have caught a fifth of the stars within 1000 light-years of the Sun taking detours. The stars are still moving around the Milky Way's centre, but they are taking more elongated routes, trooping more directly toward and away from the heart of the galaxy.

But though they are flowing in orderly streams, the stars themselves are a motley crew. They vary greatly in age, which suggests they did not form at the same time and place.

"They resemble casual travel companions more than family members," says Benoit Famaey, an astronomer at the Free University of Brussels, Belgium. He is lead author of the study, which was published in Astronomy & Astrophysics..........."

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It's amazing how much of this article could also apply to Russell Crowe, Adrian Brody or Colin Farrell, if you take out the science part.

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Lol!!!!!

I was wondering about stuff like that.....

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We should not be surprised at some exceptions in this or other topics. The eliptical orbits can begin in the the birth place of stars where the mid mass and less massive stars get ejected by sling shot maneuvers around the super-massive stars. Minor perturbing that occurs later usually approximately cancel, but very rarely can add often enough to make the orbit highly elliptical. Neil

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Can get dangerous out there...

http://www.starwars.com/databank/location/hoth/img/movie_sm.jpg

Hoth is the sixth planet in the remote system of the same name. It is a world of snow and ice, surrounded by numerous moons. Small meteorites that have wandered away from a nearby asteroid field constantly pelt Hoth's icy surface. This icy world has developed a number of indigenous lifeforms, including the wampa ice creature, and the tauntaun.

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Fortunately we have the assistance of Lord Vader in crushing these 'rebel' star systems.... just as soon as he finishes his opera gig...

http://www.cswu.cz/characters/img/char/darth_vader/tesb_2.jpg

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No need to rely on fanciful stories...
we shall have the rebels soon enough.

An actual photo taken by NASA:

http://img256.echo.cx/img256/3118/p30wn.jpg

(larger image at http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/planetary/mars/f854a81-3.jpg )

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Holy space-meatballs Batman!!!!

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'Rebel' stars revealed in Milky Way....

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