Astronomers may have discovered a rare type of binary star system, where a star used to orbit within its partner.
In the new study, astronomers investigated a pulse known as PSR J1928+1815 located about 455 light years from the earth. A pulse is a kind of neutron star, a corpse or a large star that perished in a catastrophic explosion known as Supernova. The gravitational attraction of the star’s remains would have been strong enough to crush protons and electrons to form neutron, which means that a neutron star is made mainly of neutrons. That makes it very (very) dense.
Pulsar are stars of rotating neutrons that emit twin radio wave beams of their magnetic posts. These beams seem to click because astronomers see them only when a post to press the earth is pointed. The researchers estimate that this clicking in particular was born from a hot blue star more than eight times the mass of the sun.
Using the spherical radiogeric of the opening of five hundred meters (FAST) in China, the largest unique telescope in the world, astronomers discovered that the PSR J1928+1815 had a partner, a helium star with approximately 1 to 1.6 times the mass of the sun. This star has lost the majority, or all, or its external hydrogen layers, leaving a core from 1 to helium or helium.
These stars in this pair are currently at only 700000 miles (1.12 million kilometers) away, or approximately 50 times closer than Mercury is in the sun, the Jin-Lan Han Study co-author, president of the Astronomy Radio Academies of the National Astronomy of Beetronomics Space.com. They complete an orbit from each other in just 3.6 hours.
PSR J1928+1815 is a pulsa of milliseconds, which means that it turns extraordinarily quickly, turning almost 100 times per second. Miliseconds pulsares generally reach thesis thesis speeds while cannibalizing nearby partners: intrushing material makes them turn faster and faster.
Previous investigations suggested that, as the milliseconds pulsares feed on their partners, these binary systems may experience a “common envelope” phase, in which the orbit click within the outer layers of their partner. However, scientists have never detected such exotic binary, maybe so far.
Using computer models, the researchers suggest that the members of this newly discovered binary began to dry each other approximately double that between the earth and the sun (185 million miles, or 299 million km), Han said. The press would have begun to divert the external layers of his partner, forming a common envelope around him. After approximately 1,000 years, the pulse would have turned spiral near the nucleus of his partner, which probably threw the last of this envelope, leaving Beind a very tied Baryy system.
Based on the estimated number of binary stars on the Milky Way that coincide approximately with this new system, the researchers suggest only 16 to 84 counterparts of PSR J1928+1815 and their partner may exist in our galaxy. (For the context, the Milky Way houses between 100 billion to 400 billion stars).
Detailed scientists Your findings Online May 22 in Science magazine.