(The Epoch Times, November 1, 2022) Astronomers have discovered a mysterious neutron star that is much lighter than previously thought, shattering our understanding of stellar physics and its evolution. understand. Interestingly, it probably consists mostly of quarks. This new discovery may rewrite our understanding of the universe.
As detailed in a new paper published Oct. 24 in the journal Nature Astronomy, the neutron star has a radius of just 6.2 miles and a mass of 77 percent of the Sun. That’s much lighter than any neutron star studied before, which typically has (at the same radius) 1.4 times the mass of the Sun.
So a team of astronomers from the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen in Germany thinks this could be a completely new type of star. The team is led by Victor Doroshenko.
“The mass estimate makes it the lightest neutron star known to date, and possibly a more exotic object, a strange star,” the paper reads.
Neutron stars are the densest objects in the known universe and are usually formed after supergiants go supernovae. The star’s core would then implode, compressing all its mass into an extremely dense object. According to scientists’ calculations, a teaspoon of neutron stars would have a mass of 2.2 trillion pounds.
The newly discovered object shatters known definitions and boundaries.
Using data obtained by the European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft, Doroshenko and his team found that the star was actually much closer than people thought, allowing them to recalculate the mysterious star’s mass.
However, according to the team, the resulting mass and radius simply don’t fit the current definition of a neutron star, so it could be a “strange nova.”
Strange stars are hypothetical objects thought to be composed primarily of “strange quarks”, with lower temperatures and the mass of a typical neutron star.
Astronomers have also proposed that strange stars may be behind fast radio bursts, mysterious and powerful bursts that have so far remained unexplained.
In short, this is an extraordinary celestial object that may well rewrite our understanding of the universe.
“Such a light neutron star, regardless of its internal composition, is extremely interesting from an astrophysical point of view,” Doroshenko and his team wrote in a statement.
Responsible editor: Ye Ziwei