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Astronomers have discovered black widows and redbacks in space. While these cosmic objects do not kill or eat their companions, the stars share the violent behavior of their eight-legged counterparts towards their companions.
In addition to ordinary spider stars, researchers have also discovered a strange black widow-redhead crossbreed. Scientists used the now destroyed Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico to discover the bizarre stars.
Spider stars are types of millisecond pulsars, or neutron stars that act like precise clocks in the sky, spinning at least once every 30 milliseconds and flashing like a beacon with every spin. Neutron stars, the tiny compressed cores of old exploded stars, often tear material from other stars locked in binary orbits with them and use the thrust of this infallible material to achieve pulsar speed. Spider stars are rare and special versions of these stars, however: they orbit so close to their binary companions that they explode their surfaces, inhaling copious amounts of matter like a spider tearing apart its partner limb.
In a new article, researchers identify three new black widows and a red back in the Milky Way. They also found a spider star that defies categorization, almost like a cross between the two species.
Related: The 12 strangest objects in the universe
When a spider star has reduced its mate to much less than a tenth of the mass of the sun (typically 0.02 to 0.03 times the mass of the sun), that star is called a black widow. The Redbacks have heavier companions who boast more than a tenth of the Sun’s mass. These binary redback companions periodically pass between the spider-star and Earth, creating temporary eclipses. The shriveled companions of black widows usually do not succeed in this trick.
The apparent star of the crossing is difficult to classify. For now, researchers have called him a redback because his companion sometimes eclipses his blinking light. And this companion has a mass at least 0.055 times the mass of the sun (possibly larger), which would be heavy enough for a black widow, but light enough for a red back. For now, the exact mechanics of this system are still a mystery.
Studies like this might become more difficult in the future. The paper, published January 1 in arXiv database, based on data collected between 2013 and 2018 using the Arecibo 305-m radio telescope which has since collapsed, as reported by Live Science.
Originally posted on Live Science.
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