hypervelocity
noun
hy·per·ve·loc·i·ty
ˌhī-pər-və-ˈlä-sə-tē 
-ˈlä-stē
: a high or relatively high velocity (such as thousands of feet or meters per second)
Examples of hypervelocity in a Sentence
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Han and his colleagues recently studied 21 of these hypervelocity stars at the fringes of the Milky Way.
—
Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR, 6 Mar. 2025
That means this hypervelocity star and its planet could be destined to escape the Milky Way and go intergalactic, though this process would take millions of years.
—Robert Lea, Space.com, 14 Feb. 2025
Astronomers have spotted 21 hypervelocity stars in the last two decades, all of them B-type main-sequence stars that are more massive, luminous and bluer than the Sun (these stars are easier to spot than other stars in these kinds of surveys).
—The Physics Arxiv Blog, Discover Magazine, 11 Feb. 2025
This speed suggests that the system’s star might be a hypervelocity star, an example of a rare class of stellar objects that have been sped up by past encounters with other stars—or even a gravitational slingshot from the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy.
—Jonathan O'Callaghan, Scientific American, 30 Oct. 2024
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Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR, 6 Mar. 2025
That means this hypervelocity star and its planet could be destined to escape the Milky Way and go intergalactic, though this process would take millions of years.
—Robert Lea, Space.com, 14 Feb. 2025
Astronomers have spotted 21 hypervelocity stars in the last two decades, all of them B-type main-sequence stars that are more massive, luminous and bluer than the Sun (these stars are easier to spot than other stars in these kinds of surveys).
—The Physics Arxiv Blog, Discover Magazine, 11 Feb. 2025
This speed suggests that the system’s star might be a hypervelocity star, an example of a rare class of stellar objects that have been sped up by past encounters with other stars—or even a gravitational slingshot from the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy.
—Jonathan O'Callaghan, Scientific American, 30 Oct. 2024
See All Example Sentences for hypervelocity
Cite this Entry
“Hypervelocity.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hypervelocity. Accessed 14 Mar. 2025.
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