An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

The fastest → main sequence  → hypervelocity star (HVS) with a → heliocentric  → radial velocity of 1017 ±2.7 km s^-1.

The star S5-HVS1 is an → A-type with a → luminosity of ~ 2.35 Msun located at a distance of ~ 9 kpc from the Sun. The current 3D velocity of the star in the Galactic frame is 1755 ± 50 km s^-1. When integrated backwards in time, the orbit of the star points unambiguously to the → Galactic Center, implying that S5-HVS1 was kicked away from → Sgr A* with a velocity of ~ 1800 km s^-1 and travelled for 4.8 Myr to its current location. This is so far the only HVS confidently associated with the Galactic Center. The ejection trajectory and transit time of S5-HVS1 coincide with the orbital plane and age of the annular disk of young stars at the Galactic Centre, and thus may be linked to its formation. With the S5-HVS1 ejection velocity being almost twice the velocity of other hypervelocity stars previously associated with the Galactic Center, the question arises whether they have been generated by the same mechanism or whether the ejection velocity distribution has been constant over time (Koposov, S.E., et al., 2019, arXiv:1907.11725).

See also: S5, or S⁵, short for Southern Stellar Stream Spectroscopic Survey; HVS, → hypervelocity star (HVS).