2024-01-22 00:20:00
The discovery of the object was made while observing a large star cluster known as NGC 1851 located in the southern constellation of Columba.
Photo: University of M
The MeerKAT radio telescope has found an unknown object in the Milky Way, heavier than the heaviest neutron stars and lighter than the lightest black holes. The discovery was carried out by several institutions, including the University of Manchester and the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy. (Read: Ingenuity: NASA reestablishes contact with the helicopter on Mars)
Scientists found this object orbiting a rapidly spinning millisecond pulsar located about 40,000 light-years away in a dense group of stars known as a globular cluster.
The discovery of the object, presented in Sciencewas made while observing a large star cluster known as NGC 1851 located in the southern constellation of Columba.
Using the pulsar’s millisecond clock-like ticks, they showed that the massive object lies in the so-called mass space of the black hole. It could be the first discovery of the much-coveted radiopulsar-black hole binary; a stellar binomial that could allow new tests of Einstein’s general relativity and open doors to the study of black holes.
“Astronomers believe that a collision between two neutron stars could have created the massive object that now orbits the radio pulsar,” explained the University of Manchester in a statement. (You can read: NASA publishes the first photos of the samples taken on the asteroid Bennu)
The team was able to detect faint pulses from one of the stars, identifying it as a radio pulsar, a type of rapidly spinning neutron star that projects beams of radio light into the Universe like a cosmic beacon. The pulsar rotates more than 170 times per second and each rotation produces a rhythmic pulse, like the ticking of a clock.
The ticking of these pulses is regular, and by observing how the timing of the ticks changes, using a technique called pulsar synchronization, they were able to make extremely precise measurements of their orbital motion.
Astronomers believe that the total mass needed for a neutron star to collapse is 2.2 times the mass of the sun. This discovery may help to finally understand these objects. (Also read: Japanese SLIM probe reached the Moon, but solar panels stopped generating energy)
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