Evidence Of New Phase In Neutron Stars Discovered
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online University of Alicante researchers have discovered the first evidence of a new phase in neutron stars. The scientists wrote in the journal Nature Physics that they have detected what may...
Latest Neutron star Stories
WASHINGTON, May 29, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Astronomers using NASA's Swift X-ray Telescope have observed a spinning neutron star suddenly slowing down, yielding clues they can use to understand these extremely dense objects. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) A neutron star is the crushed core of a massive star that ran out of fuel, collapsed under its own weight, and exploded as a supernova. A neutron star can spin as fast as 43,000 times per...
John P. Millis, PhD for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online When a massive star – one several times larger than our Sun – consumes all of the fusible matter in its core, it begins to implode in a brilliant supernova. Driven by gravitational collapse, the core of the star will form either a neutron star or a black hole, depending upon its mass. While not quite as exotic or dense as a black hole, a neutron star is still an amazing object and provides a useful laboratory for...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has revealed that some of the most extreme objects in the universe may be more common than previously thought. Magnetars are the dense remains of dead stars that erupt sporadically with bursts of high-energy radiation. When a massive star runs out of fuel its core collapses to form a neutron star. Most neutron stars spin rapidly, but a small fraction have a relatively low spin rate while also...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Astronomers using the Karoo Array Telescope (KAT-7) in South Africa have revealed giant outbursts from X-ray binary star system Circinus X-1. The team watched as the double star system fired off energetic matter from its core into the surrounding system in extensive, compact jets that flared brightly. Circinus X-1 is a neutron star system where the two stars orbit each other every 16.5 days in an elliptical orbit. When the two stars...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Astronomers have found a way to test Einstein's theory of gravity in ways that were not possible before now, thanks to new observations of a very unique system. A team used telescopes around the world to study the most massive neutron star confirmed so far, orbited by a white dwarf. The scientists wrote in the journal Science that so far the new observations match up with Einstein's predictions for general relativity. Einstein's...
GREENBELT, Md., April 5, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Neutron-star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), which NASA recently selected as its next Explorer Mission of Opportunity, will gather scientific data revealing the physics of the densest matter allowed in nature, and--from the same platform--will demonstrate a groundbreaking navigation technology that could revolutionize the agency's ability to travel to the far reaches of the solar system and beyond. (Logo:...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The densest matter in the Universe outside of black holes is contained in neutron stars, the ultra-dense cores left behind after massive stars collapse. One of the most reliable determinations yet of the relationship between the radius of a neutron star and its mass has been provided by new results from NASA's Chandra, along with European Space Agency's (ESA) XMM-Newton and NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), which constrain how...
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Using observations made possible by the European Space Agency’s INTEGRAL satellite, a pair of French scientists has been able to recreate how the Milky Way’s spiral arms looked millions of years ago. According to their report in the Astrophysical Journal, the two researchers based their recreation on the observations of high mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs), pairs of massive stars that are surrounded with the remnants of supernovas....
WASHINGTON, Feb. 13, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- New data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory suggest a highly distorted supernova remnant may contain the most recent black hole formed in the Milky Way galaxy. The remnant appears to be the product of a rare explosion in which matter is ejected at high speeds along the poles of a rotating star. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The remnant, called W49B, is about a thousand years old as seen from...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online A rare explosion from a rotating star may have created the most recent black hole formed in the Milky Way galaxy. Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory claim that matter was ejected at high speeds along the poles of a rotating star, creating a supernova remnant, W49B, which may contain a young black hole. "W49B is the first of its kind to be discovered in the galaxy," said Laura Lopez, who led the study at the...
Latest Neutron star Reference Libraries
X-Ray Astronomy -- Although the more energetic X-rays (E > 30 keV) can penetrate the air at least for distances of a few meters (they would never have been detected and medical X-ray machines would not work if this was not the case) the Earth's atmosphere is thick enough that virtually none are able to penetrate from outer space all the way to the Earth's surface. X-rays in the 0.5 - 5 keV range, where most celestial sources give off the bulk of their energy, can be stopped by a few...
X-ray Pulsar -- This dramatic artist's vision shows a city-sized neutron star centered in a disk of hot plasma drawn from its enfeebled red companion star. Ravenously accreting material from the disk, the neutron star spins faster and faster emitting powerful particle beams and pulses of X-rays as it rotates 400 times a second. Could such a bizarre and inhospitable star system really exist in our Universe? Based on data from the orbiting Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) satellite,...
Supernova -- A supernova is a star that increases its brightness drastically within a matter of days, making it appear as if a "new" star was born (hence "nova"). The "super" prefix distinguishes it from a mere nova, which also involves a star increasing in brightness, though to a lesser extent and through a much different mechanism. Astronomers have classified supernovae in several classes, according to the lines of different elements that appear in their spectra. The first...
Strange Matter -- Strange matter (also known as quark matter) is an ultra-dense phase of matter that is theorized to form inside particularly massive neutron stars (which are then known as "strange stars" or "quark stars"). It's theorized that when neutronium is put under sufficient pressure due to the gravitation of a large neutron star, the individual neutrons break down and their constituent quarks form strange matter. Strange matter is composed of strange quarks bound to each...
Pulsar -- A pulsar, which originally stood for pulsating radio source, is a rapidly rotating neutron star, whose electromagnetic radiation is observed in regularly spaced interval, or pulses. Pulsars are closely related to magnetars, the main difference being the strenght of the object's magnetic field. History Pulsars were discovered by Jocelyn Bell and Antony Hewish in 1967 while they were using a radio array to study the scintillation of quasars. They found a very regular...
![NASA\](/media/gallery/fermi-gamma-ray-space-telescope/thumbs/thumbs_751993main_manhattan_ns_large.jpg "NASA\")
![NASA\](/media/gallery/fermi-gamma-ray-space-telescope/thumbs/thumbs_751995main_ctb109_large.jpg "NASA\")
![NASA\](/media/gallery/fermi-gamma-ray-space-telescope/thumbs/thumbs_751988main_magnetar_art_large.jpg "NASA\")
![NASA\](/media/gallery/chandra-x-ray-observatory/thumbs/thumbs_w49b.jpg "NASA\")
