APOD 3.3

This picture shows a runaway star, Zeta Ophiuchi.  This star is about 20 times more massive than our sun and it is producing an interstellar bow wave or bow shock.  This incredible picture was captured by the WISE Spacecraft.  Zeta Ophiuchi is traveling at about 24 kilometers per second.  Its strong stellar wind compresses and heats the interstellar material causing it take the shape of the curve.  The only hypothesis for why this star is moving like this is that it was once a binary star and the other star was more massive and it exploded as a supernova.  This supernova then sent off Zeta Ophiuchi to its current motion. 

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110204.html