Deadly cannonballs twice the size of MARS have been spotted hurtling through space… and NASA can’t tell where they’re heading for next
The heated cannonballs travel at roughly a half-million miles per hour, and it's impossible for NASA to predict where they will end up
HUGE planet-sized fireballs which burn hotter than the Sun have been spotted hurtling through space - and NASA can't pinpoint where they're coming from.
The enormous cannonballs are twice the size of Mars, and burn at over 9,000 degrees C, making the flaming giants hotter than the Sun.
The mysterious objects were spotted by NASA's Hubble telescope, and although the agency has a good idea about what's going on, they can't place the exact source of the fireballs.
The burning lumps of plasma were seen near the V Hydrae star, and have been launched through space in all directions from a point near the red giant, which is nearing the end of its life.
However, NASA experts claim the fireballs aren't coming from the dying star itself, meaning that the exact location of the real launch point is unknown.
The best theory is that the balls of fiery plasma are coming from a companion star, which closely orbits V Hydrae every 8.5 years.
Once every orbit, for the last 400 years, the smaller star has gobbled up energy from V Hydrae, before overloading itself and launching a blob of plasma out into space to relieve the buildup.
Thankfully, the stars are 1,200 lightyears away, meaning that we don't need to worry about being incinerated by one of the rogue fireballs.
However, the furthest fireball had managed to travel 37 billion miles, more than eight times the distance from our Sun to the edge of the solar system.
The heated cannonballs travel at roughly a half-million miles per hour, and it's impossible for NASA to predict where they will end up.
Scientists are now hopeful that this bizarre phenomenon can help to explain the formation of nebulae, glowing shapes which form around dying stars.