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Runaway planets ejected from galaxy at insane speeds

New evidence suggests that planets are being tossed out of the Milky Way at speeds comparable to the speed of light.


This artist's animation shows a moon-sized planet crashing at high-speed into a planet similar to Mercury. Researchers are still speculating as to the frequency of events like this for planets at near-light speed.


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In the seven years since, 16 of these hypervelocity stars have been found, and Loeb and his colleagues began to wonder whether planets could also be sent tearing through space at such extreme velocities.

Cosmic pinball


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