NASA catches strange signal leading to super object from the dead

(NLĐO) - A strange fluctuation in data from NASA's NICER telescope has led scientists to a deadly object rotating at a staggering 716 times per second.

A research team led by astrophysicist Gaurava Jaisawal from the Technical University of Denmark analyzed data from NASA's NICER telescope to study a dead object and inadvertently discovered it to be something unusual and unlike anything they had ever seen before.

That object is located 27,400 light-years away from us and is something that has "returned from the dead": a neutron star.

Data from NASA telescopes reveals a deadly object rotating at incredible speeds - Graphic image: PHYS

When a massive star explodes in a brilliant death, a supernova, its core collapses, and what remains clumps together into a compact but incredibly powerful "zombie" neutron star.

Neutron stars have masses ranging from about 1.1 to 2.3 times that of the Sun, but their diameters are only about 20 km.

The neutron star that Dr. Jaisawal and his colleagues are studying has many strange characteristics.

According to a publication in The Astrophysical Journal, it belongs to a binary star system called 4U 1820-30, with its companion being a white dwarf – a "zombie" of Sun-sized stars.

The pair orbit each other with a period of just 11.4 minutes, so the more powerful neutron star continuously sucks matter from its companion.

Whenever a neutron star fills its belly, a small explosion occurs, ejecting the excess matter. The research team recorded 15 such thermonuclear explosions between 2017 and 2022.

But there was a strange signal in the data: One of the explosions contained an oscillation with a frequency of 716 Hertz.

Researchers have investigated and concluded that this strange signal is due to the neutron star rotating at a speed of 716 times per second, nearly reaching the theoretical limit of 730 times per second.

Neutron stars that rotate so rapidly are called pulsars, and the star in the 4U 1820-30 system is the fastest-rotating pulsar ever known.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/nasa-bat-duoc-tin-hieu-la-dan-toi-sieu-vat-the-tu-coi-chet-196241107104617717.htm