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NASA astronomers find the fastest exoplanet system at 1.2 million miles per hour

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The star-and-planet duo would set a record for the fastest-known exoplanet system moving, by one estimate, at a blistering 1.2 million miles per hour.

The system burst onto astronomers’ radar in 2011 when the Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics project first spotted light signatures that hinted at two objects crossing paths with a background star.

Measurements suggest it lies some 24,000 light-years away, nestled in the Milky Way’s densely populated galactic bulge.