Fastest spinning star
- Who
- VFTS 102
- What
- 2000000 kilometre(s) per hour
- Where
- Not Applicable
- When
- 05 December 2011
VFTS 102 is a star around 25 times more massive than the Sun and 100,000 times more luminous. It lies within the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud some 160,000 light years away. Discovered by astronomers using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile and announced on 5 December 2011, VFTS 102 rotates around 300 times faster than our Sun, at around two million kph. If it were rotating faster it would be in danger of tearing itself apart due to centrifugal forces.