14 DAY TRIAL // VFTS 102 is the fastest-rotating star ever discovered, no doubt about it. At an average speed of 1 million miles (1.61 million kilometers) per hour, it spins about 100 times faster than our own star.
The object was recently identified in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that orbits the Milky Way in close proximity. The star itself is located about 160,000 light-years away from our current position.
The reason why this artist's concept shows the star in an oblate shape is that the speed at which it spins most likely flattened the celestial body in this manner. It is also very likely that a massive disk of hot plasma spun off from its surface.
Astronomers propose that VFTS 102 was in fact a member of a binary star system, but that its companion eventually burst into a supernova after losing too much material. This may certainly explain this weird setup, NASA experts believe.