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Scientists may have caught the blinding flash of two dense neutron stars colliding to form a strange magnetic star.
The first sign of the massive event was a gamma beacon that appeared in telescope data on May 22, prompting astronomers to assemble their best instruments. This answer was important: scientists think gamma-ray bursts Usually come from colliding neutron stars and are therefore eager to see as many views of these fireworks as possible. But as the observations progressed, the researchers realized that something strange was happening: The flash contained a lot more infrared light than expected, 10 times more. Scientists behind the new research believe the discrepancy may mean the crash produced something unexpected.
“These observations do not match traditional explanations for short gamma-ray bursts,” Wen-fai Fong, astronomer at Northwestern University in Illinois and lead author of the new research, said in a press release. “Based on what we know about the radio and x-rays of this explosion, it just doesn’t add up.”
Related: Gamma universe: photos from NASA’s Fermi Space Telescope
Astronomers used a multitude of facilities to study the event, including NASA’s Swift Observatory in space, the Very Large Array in New Mexico, and the Keck Observatory in Hawaii, but it was the The Hubble Space Telescope who spotted the extremely bright infrared radiation from the burst which told scientists something particularly strange was happening.
“The Hubble observations were designed to look for infrared emissions resulting from the creation of heavy elements – like gold, platinum, and uranium – during a neutron star collision“Said Edo Berger, an astronomer at the Center for Astronomy jointly run by Harvard University and the Smithsonian Institution and co-author of the new research. Neutron stars are the superdense remnants of exploded stars and the brilliant afterglow of A collision of two of these objects is called a kilonova.
“Surprisingly, we found a much brighter infrared emission than we ever imagined, suggesting that there was an additional energy input from a magnetar which was the remnant of fusion,” said Shepherd. “The fact that we see this infrared emission and that it is so bright shows that short gamma-ray bursts do form from collisions of neutron stars, but surprisingly, the consequences of the collision may not be. black hole, but probably a magnetar. “
A magnetar is a cosmic curiosity, an unusual class of supermagnetic neutron stars. But scientists have long wondered how magnetars become so magnetic, so observing a possible formation event is especially useful for scientists.
“We know magnetars exist because we see them in our galaxy,” Fong said in a second statement. “We believe that most of them formed during the explosive death of massive stars, leaving these highly magnetized neutron stars behind. However, it is possible that a small fraction forms in neutron star mergers. We’ve never seen evidence of this before, let alone. in infrared light, which makes this discovery special. “
And this time, the researchers were able to get a view early enough of the explosion to capture the infrared peak that is fading in all its glory.
“Surprisingly, Hubble was only able to take an image three days after the explosion,” Fong said. “You need another observation to prove that there is a fading counterpart associated with the merger, as opposed to a static source. Something very unusual had also been discovered.”
The research is described in an article announced for publication in The Astrophysical Journal today (November 12) and available for reading on the arXiv.org preprint server.
Email Meghan Bartels at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels. follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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