Record-Breaking: Star-Planet Duo Zooms at 1.2 Million MPH

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Scientists spotted a super-Neptune planet with its star racing through space at 1.2 million miles per hour, potentially setting a speed record for planetary systems.

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Located 24,000 light-years away in the Milky Way's crowded center, this planetary duo moves twice as fast as our solar system.

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The planet weighs 29 times more than Earth and orbits a small star that's just one-fifth the size of our Sun.

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Astronomers used the microlensing technique, where gravity acts like a cosmic magnifying glass, bending light from distant stars to detect this speedy pair.

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Research teams compared telescope data from Hawaii and European Space Agency satellite observations spanning 2011 to 2021 to measure the system's mass.

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The star-planet pair's incredible velocity might let them break free from the Milky Way's gravity and drift into intergalactic space millions of years from now.

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Despite sitting at a distance between Venus and Earth relative to its star, the planet remains too cold for life due to its dim host star.

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Scientists plan to conduct follow-up observations next year to confirm the system's predicted movement patterns.

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NASA's upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will help discover more unusual planetary systems like this speed demon duo.

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