A graphic illustration of fragments of a fugitive star.

Mostafa Al Zoubi, Gulf Today

Astronomers at Boston American University discovered "LP 40-365," the fragments of a fugitive star of the Milky Way, travelling at 2 million miles per hour, 1,000 times faster than a bullet, after surviving a massive star explosion.

The discovered object is about fifth of the size of the Earth, and about 2,000 light years away.   

Scientists said the fragments are a rare type of the huge white piston, which survived a huge explosion.

Scientists hope that this discovery will provide an insight into the other stars having a similar catastrophic past.

"These fragments are moving very quickly and they will surely leave our galaxy," Professor JG Hermes Assistant Professor in Astronomy at Boston University said.

Astronomers Odeli Potterman and JJ JG Hermes studied data of Nasa Hubble Space Telescope and the satellite scanning the transboundary outer planets, and the nearby and remote stars. They also studied the different types of light data from telescopes and found that "LP 40- 365 "will only not be expelled from the galaxy, but, based on brightness patterns, they are on its way out of it."

"The shrapnel from the explosion revolves around its axis very quickly, but they are slow at a rate of 9 hours, despite its great speed," Petterman said.

He added that all the stars spin up slowly around axis every 27 days, but for shrapnel surviving a Super Nova, 9 hours are relatively slow.