Scientists have discovered a neutron star that they believe is spinning at an unprecedentedly slow rate—slower than any of the more than 3,000 radio-emitting neutron stars measured to date.
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This was reported by the press service of the University of Manchester (UK).
Neutron stars are the super-dense remains of a dead star:
- they usually rotate at incredibly fast speeds, spending only seconds or even fractions of a second to complete a full circle around their axis;
- However, this newly discovered neutron star defies this rule by emitting radio signals at a relatively leisurely interval of 54 minutes.
When studying radio-emitting neutron stars, we are accustomed to extreme situations, but the discovery of a compact star that rotates so slowly and still emits radio waves was unexpected, the researchers note.
At the end of their lives, large stars spend all their fuel and explode in a stunning explosion called a supernova. What remains is a stellar remnant called a neutron star, made up of trillions of neutrons packed into a ball so densely that its mass is 1.4 times the mass of the Sun and fits within a radius of just 10 km.
This star is located 16 thousand light years from Earth and its discovery was the result of a combination of data from a new generation of radio telescopes located in different places on the globe, which made it possible to record changes in radiation over such a long time.
The pattern of radio emission and the rate at which the orbital period changes indicate that it is a neutron star. However, researchers do not rule out that it could be an isolated white dwarf with a strong magnetic field. However, the absence of other highly magnetic white dwarfs nearby makes the neutron star explanation more plausible, the report said.
It is noted that further research is needed to confirm that this is the object, but any scenario promises to provide valuable insight into the physics of these extreme objects.
The results may force scientists to reconsider their decades-old ideas about neutron stars or white dwarfs; about how they emit radio waves and what their population is in our Milky Way galaxy,” notes the university’s press service.
The stars in our galaxy are moving slower than previously thought.
Source: Racurs
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