(ORDO NEWS) — Astronomers have discovered a mysterious neutron star that is much lighter than previously thought.
This undermines our understanding of the physics and evolution of stars. Interestingly, the found star may consist mainly of quarks.
The discovered neutron star has a radius of only 10 kilometers and only 77 percent of the mass of the Sun.
This makes it much lighter than other previously studied neutron stars, typically having 1.4 times the mass of the Sun for the same radius.
New type of neutron stars
A team of astronomers led by Viktor Doroshenko from the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen in Germany suggests that this could be a completely new type of star.
Our mass estimate makes the central compact object in HESS J1731-347 the lightest neutron star known today, and a potentially more exotic object – that is, a candidate for “strange stars,” the article says.
Neutron stars, which are among the densest objects in the known universe, usually form after supergiant stars go supernova. The star’s core can then explode, compressing all that mass into a very dense object.
According to scientists, one teaspoon of a neutron star would have a mass of almost 4 billion tons. A newly discovered object defies our known definitions and boundaries.
What is known about the star
Doroshenko and his team discovered that the star is indeed much closer to us than we thought.
Data obtained by the European Space Agency‘s Gaia spacecraft allowed them to list the mass of the mysterious star.
The resulting mass and radius, however, simply don’t fit into our current definition of a neutron star, making this new discovery a possible candidate for “strange stars,” according to the team.
Amazing stars
These are hypothetical celestial objects thought to be composed mostly of “strange quark” matter, allowing them to have a lower temperature and mass than other neutron stars.
Astronomers also speculate that strange stars may be behind fast radio bursts, mysterious and powerful bursts of radio pulses that have yet to be explained.
In a word, this is a very unusual object that can make us reconsider our ideas about the Universe.
—
Online:
Contact us: [email protected]
Our Standards, Terms of Use: Standard Terms And Conditions.