There’s a White Dwarf Racing at 2,800 km/s

Astronomers have found a white dwarf star blasting through the Milky Way at about 2,800 km/s—roughly 10 million km/h. That’s about 1% of the speed of light, fast enough to cross the distance between Earth and the Moon in under three minutes. How did it get so fast? It is thought to be the survivor of a “double-detonation” supernova, where its companion white dwarf exploded and slingshotted it out of its original orbit. Now it’s a runaway star, doomed to drift through space forever.