2 JANUARY 2021
You know how stars do. They re out there, doing their thing, fusing a whole bunch of hydrogen into helium, shining up the joint.
But some stars are just a little bit different from the norm. Not content with simply lighting up the night sky like a giant disco, they zoom, shimmer, dim and even hang around seeming to be older than the actual Universe. These are our galaxy s oddballs, and we love each and every one.
Need for speed: PSR J0002+6216
(J. English/University of Manitoba/NRAO/F. Schinzel et al./DRAO/Canadian Galactic Plane Survey/NASA/IRAS)
We re not sure where the star named PSR J0002+6216 is headed, but we know it s heading there fast. It s travelling at the absolutely breakneck speed of 1,130 kilometres per second (700 miles per second). That could take it from Earth to the Moon in six minutes.