Natal Kick
A sudden, powerful jolt a newborn neutron star or black hole receives during its parent star's supernova explosion, flinging it through space at hundreds of kilometers per second.
The abrupt velocity boost imparted to a neutron star or stellar-mass black hole at the moment of its birth in a supernova. Asymmetries in the explosion—uneven ejection of matter or neutrino emission—propel the compact remnant away from its birthplace at speeds often exceeding 400 km/s. These kicks explain why many pulsars drift far from their original stellar nurseries and why some black holes escape their host clusters entirely.
What this means in real life
Imagine a firecracker exploding unevenly: one side blasts harder, so the cardboard tube shoots off in the opposite direction. Similarly, when a massive star collapses and explodes, lopsided jets of gas can rocket the newborn neutron star across the galaxy at a million miles per hour.
What it isn’t
Not the star's original orbital motion or a gentle drift. The kick is a violent, one-time impulse born from the supernova itself—not gradual acceleration or the remnant coasting along its old path.
Commonly misused online
Science memes sometimes call any fast-moving star a 'kicked' object, but true natal kicks apply only to compact remnants (neutron stars, black holes) born in supernovae—not to runaway O-stars ejected by gravitational slingshots or stellar collisions.