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Magnetized dead star likely has a solid surface: NASA satellite data

7Nov

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Magnetized dead star likely has a solid surface: NASA satellite data

[ad_1] The study, published in the journal Science and led by researchers at the University of Padova, uses data from a NASA satellite. A signature in the X-ray light emitted by a highly magnetized dead star known as a magnetar suggests the star has a solid surface with no atmosphere. The team looked at IXPE's observation of magnetar 4U 0142 61, located in the Cassiopeia constellation, about 13,000 light years away from Earth. This was the first time polarised X-ray light from a magnetar had been observed. Magnetars are neutron stars very dense remnant cores of massive stars that have exploded as supernovae at the ends of their lives. Unlike other neutron stars, they have an immense magnetic field the most powerful in the universe. They emit bright X-rays and show erratic periods...

Zombie worlds: 5 spooky planets orbiting dead stars

[ad_1] Stars shine by the process of nuclear fusion in which lighter atoms, such as hydrogen, fuse together to create heavier ones. All stars, including the Sun, have a finite lifetime. Stars shine by the process of nuclear fusion in which lighter atoms, such as hydrogen, fuse together to create heavier ones. This process releases vast quantities of energy which counteracts the ever-present inward pull of the star's gravity. Ultimately, fusion helps stars to resist gravitational collapse. This balance of forces is called “hydrostatic equilibrium”. However, there will come a time when the supply of fuel in the core of a star starts to run out and it eventually dies. Stars with more than about eight times the mass of the Sun will typically burn through their fuel in less than 100...

Graveyard of suns! First ever galactic underworld map created of dead stars in Milky Way

[ad_1] First map of the 'galactic underworld' reveals a graveyard of suns that is 3 times the height of the Milky Way Galaxy. The first map of the 'galactic underworld' a chart of the corpses of once massive suns that have since collapsed into black holes and neutron stars have revealed a graveyard that stretches three times the height of the Milky Way Galaxy, and that almost a third of the objects have been flung out from the galaxy altogether."These compact remnants of dead stars show a fundamentally different distribution and structure to the visible galaxy," said David Sweeney, a PhD student at the Sydney Institute for Astronomy at the University of Sydney, and lead author of the paper in the latest issue of Monthly Notic...