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Astronomers have apparently spotted another epic crash of neutron stars – and they do not need it gravitational waves to do it.
NASA's Chandra X-ray observatory has detected a powerful X-ray discharge from a galaxy 6.6 billion light-years from Earth, reports a new study. According to the researchers, the emissions were probably generated by the merger of two neutron stars, exotic stellar corpses so dense that their constitutive matter is transformed into neutrons.
If this interpretation is correct, it opens new perspectives in the neutron star-strike hunt, the study members said. Although there is another strong competitoronly one event of this type has been confirmed so far: a discovery of 2017 relying heavily on the detection of ripples in space-time, called gravitational waves. (Several different telescopes have also observed the light of this accident, opening the era of "multimessenger astronomy".)
Related: Images: The amazing discovery of a crash with a neutron star, gravitational waves and much more
"We have found a completely new way to spot a neutron star fusion," the study's lead author, Yongquan Xue, of the China University of Science and Technology, said in a statement. "The behavior of this X-ray source corresponds to what one of our team members had predicted for these events."
The light source that Chandra studied, dubbed XT2, exploded on March 22, 2015, but the research team saw it later, after reviewing the archival data of the company. ;observatory. The X-ray brightness of the XT2 remained relatively constant for 30 minutes. But this brightness was divided by 300 over the next 6.5 hours, and then it completely faded.
The researchers said that this X-ray signature corresponds to that of a newborn magnetar, a fast-rotating neutron star with a magnetic field of a quadrillion times more powerful than that of the Earth. So it seems that the crash of the XT2 neutron star has created a magnetar rather than a black hole, just like the 2017 event (known as GW170817 because it was first sighted on August 17, 2017).
The new study should help astronomers to learn more about the internal structure of neutron stars, team members said.
"We can not throw neutron stars together in a laboratory to see what's going on, so we have to wait for the universe to do it for us," said co-author Bing Zhang, of the company. University of Nevada Las Vegas. declaration. "If two neutron stars can collide and a heavy neutron star survives, it tells us that their structure is relatively rigid and resilient."
The XT2 probably also generated gravitational waves, the researchers said. But the event occurred before the launch of the upgrade version of the Laser gravitational wave interferometer observatory (CME). This project, together with another project called Virgo, detected the spatio-temporal ripples of GW170817. And anyway, XT2 is probably too far away to be probed by LIGO, said members of the study team.
If XT2 is a fusion of neutron stars, it is a member of a very small group. But there may be others of the kind who hide without being detected in Chandra's archives.
"We started to look at others Chandra Data to see if similar sources are present, "said in the same statement Xuechen Cheng, co-author of China University of Science and Technology." As with this source, the data held in the archives could contain unexpected treasures. "
The new study was published last week in the journal Nature. You can read it for free on the online preprint site. arXiv.org.
Mike Wall's book on the search for extraterrestrial life, "Over there"(Grand Central Publishing, 2018, illustrated by Karl Tate), is out now. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
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