Imagine that the size of a bacterium is measured from a distance of about 4500 light-years. This would be an incredible measurement, considering that a bacterium is so small that a microscope is required to see it, and what an enormous distance light can travel in 4500 years, given that it can round the Earth more than seven times in just…
Tag: neutron star
Method proposed for more accurate determinations of neutron star radii
Neutron stars are the smallest and densest astrophysical objects with visible surfaces in the Universe. They form after gravitational collapses of the iron nuclei of massive (with masses about ten solar masses) stars at the end of their nuclear evolution. We can observe these collapses as supernovae explosions. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-08-method-accurate-neutron-star-radii.html…
Astrophysicists observe long-theorized quantum phenomena
At the heart of every white dwarf star—the dense stellar object that remains after a star has burned away its fuel reserve of gases as it nears the end of its life cycle—lies a quantum conundrum: as white dwarfs add mass, they shrink in size, until they become so small and tightly compacted that they cannot sustain themselves, collapsing into a…
ALMA finds possible sign of neutron star in supernova 1987A
Two teams of astronomers have made a compelling case in the 33-year-old mystery surrounding Supernova 1987A. Based on observations of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and a theoretical follow-up study, the scientists provide new insight for the argument that a neutron star is hiding deep inside the remains of the exploded star. This would be the youngest neutron star known…
Astronomers ponder Odd Radio Circles in space
Scientists in Australia have discovered a strange new phenomenon in deep space – “Odd Radio Circles” – that appear in radio telescope images as mysterious circles or rings. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/astronomers-ponder-odd-radio-circles-in-space…
Mysterious spinning neutron star detected in the Milky Way proves to be an extremely rare discovery
On March 12th 2020 a space telescope called Swift detected a burst of radiation from halfway across the Milky Way. Within a week, the newly discovered X-ray source, named Swift J1818.0–1607, was found to be a magnetar, a rare type of slowly rotating neutron star with one of the most powerful magnetic fields in the universe. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-07-mysterious-neutron-star-milky-extremely.html…
Gravitational Waves Reveal Lightest Black Hole Ever Observed
sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: Gravitational wave detectors have spotted a cosmic collision in which a giant black hole swallowed up a mystery object seemingly too heavy to be a neutron star, but too light to be a black hole. Weighing in at 2.6 times the mass of the Sun, the object falls into a hypothetical “mass gap,” a…
LIGO and Virgo find a mystery object in the “mass gap”
The science world is buzzing today about a new discovery made via the LIGO-Virgo collaboration. It’s a new object found in the so-called “mass gap” between neutron stars and black holes. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/gw190814-mystery-object-in-mass-gap…
Either the heaviest-known neutron star or the lightest-known black hole: LIGO-Virgo finds mystery object in ‘mass gap’
When the most massive stars die, they collapse under their own gravity and leave behind black holes; when stars that are a bit less massive die, they explode in a supernova and leave behind dense, dead remnants of stars called neutron stars. For decades, astronomers have been puzzled by a gap that lies between neutron stars and black holes: the heaviest…
CTA prototype LST-1 detects very high-energy emission from the Crab Nebula pulsar
Between January and February 2020, the prototype Large-Sized Telescope (LST), the LST-1, observed the Crab Pulsar, the neutron star at the centre of the Crab Nebula. The telescope, which is being commissioned on the CTA-North site on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands, was conducting engineering runs to verify the telescope performance and adjust operating parameters. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-06-cta-prototype-lst-high-energy-emission.html…