Hubble Sees Bare Neutron Star Streaking Across Space

1. Why is the neutron star's closeness to Earth and lack of a companion so important to astronomers?

A neutron star is the dense, compact corpse of a massive star that died in a violent explosion. Because this object is the closest and brightest of the few known isolated neutron stars, astronomers can easily study it and use information about its size, brightness, and age to test theories about a massive star's life and death.

2. How fast is the neutron star traveling?

This runaway object is one of the fastest moving stars in the sky, traveling at a speed of about 240,000 miles an hour (389,000 kilometers an hour).