Scientists have spotted a faraway phenomenon giving off the first-of-its-kind glow.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope recently detected that a neutron star located 815 light years away is emitting infrared radiation. The discovery of the star, or pulsar RX J0806.4-4123, is forcing scientists to rethink everything they know about these cosmic staples.
Neutron stars measure only a few miles around, but contain more mass than the sun and typically form after an exploding star dies, also known as a supernova. The only-known astronomical body with more density than a neutron star is a black hole.
Pulsars are fast-rotating neutron stars with magnetic fields that are usually hundreds of millions of times stronger than Earth’s.
The odd pulsar is part of a group known as the “magnificent seven,” which earned their name from being hotter than they should be in terms of age and energy output. Pulsars give off light in numerous wavelengths and are usually studied in X-rays, but RX J0806.4-4123 is shooting out infrareds over a swatch of space the size of our solar system — a distance and wavelength never before observed in pulsars.
“The emission is clearly above what the neutron star itself emits — it doesn’t come from the neutron star alone,” the study’s lead author Bettina Posselt, associate research professor at Penn State University, told Gizmodo. “This is very new.”
The research, published in the Astrophysical Journal, offers two theories on what could be causing the extended infrared emission. The first is that it’s a “fallback disk,” or collection of dust and leftover matter from the giant star’s death. This theory could “change our general understanding of neutron star evolution,” according to Posselt.
The second is that it’s a “pulsar wind nebula,” making it similar to the infamous Crab Nebula, which Posselt described in a press release as:
“A pulsar wind can be produced when particles are accelerated in the electric field that is produced by the fast rotation of a neutron star with a strong magnetic field. As the neutron star travels through the interstellar medium at greater than the speed of sound, a shock can form where the interstellar medium and the pulsar wind interact. The shocked particles would then radiate synchrotron emission, causing the extended infrared emission that we see.”
Pulsar wind nebulas are also usually only observed in X-rays, so an infrared one would be “very unusual and exciting.”
Researchers plan to eventually get a closer look at the unique pulsar once the long-anticipated James Webb Space Telescope takes to the stars. It’s currently scheduled to be launched in 2021.
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