This Galactic 'Bone' Was Smashed by a Pulsar Clocking Up to 2 Million MPH
The culprit in a cosmic hit-and-run that resulted in a broken 'bone' has been found out.
Of course, it's not actually a bone at all, but a mind-blowingly huge filament in the center of the Milky Way galaxy, known as the Snake, extending for a length of 230 light-years. One of the interesting things about this filament is that it's relatively smooth – except for two prominent kinks, or "breaks".
The origin of the fractures in the Snake (G359.13) was something of a mystery; observations using the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the MeerKAT radio telescope revealed the culprit of one of them.
Zooming in on one of the fractures identified a prominent point-like source of X-rays and radio waves. A team of astronomers, led by Farhad Yusef-Zadeh of Northwestern University in the US, thinks it could only be a radio pulsar that punched through the filament at an absolutely breakneck velocity of between 500 and 1,000 kilometers (310 to 620 miles) per second.
This, believe it or not, is not unheard-of for pulsars. That's because pulsars are dead stars – the collapsed cores of massive stars that have reached the end of their lifespan and sneezed off their outer material in a violent supernova. The core of the star, no longer supported by the outward pressure of fusion, collapses under gravity to form a neutron star that, when it pulses with light, we call a pulsar.
If this supernova is lopsided, the neutron star can be booted unceremoniously across the galaxy at high speeds, something astronomers call a natal kick. The famous cannonball pulsar is thought to have received a natal kick; and other high-speed stars show just how powerful this blow can be.
We don't know the origin of the pulsar smashing through the Snake, but it seems to be doing so with quite some force. The filament is made of magnetic fields, along which spiraling particles are accelerated, causing the filament to glow.
Around the fracture, the radio emission glows more strongly, suggesting that the force of the blow warped the magnetic field, distorting the radio signal. Meanwhile, an enhancement in X-rays near the pulsar is consistent with accelerated electrons and positrons.
The cause of the second, smaller fracture is yet to be determined. There is also more to discover about the pulsar. If it's traveling fast enough, it may some day leave the galaxy. But since it's in the galactic center, some 26,000 light-years from us, it has a long road ahead of it.
A paper describing these findings was published in May 2024 in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Giant Impacts Could Trigger Seismic Vibrations Lasting Millions of Years
Scientists Have a Radical Plan to Grab a Sample of Venus's Toxic Atmosphere
JWST Helps Decipher Mysterious Nature of Hot Alien World
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
Astronomers fear impact of Musk's Starlink on South Africa mega-telescope observations
By Wendell Roelf CAPE TOWN (Reuters) -Astronomers working with South Africa's SKA telescope are pushing authorities to ensure that any licensing agreement with Elon Musk's Starlink will protect their groundbreaking observations, a senior scientist said. Discussions to bring Musk's internet service Starlink in South Africa have already been contentious, with parent company SpaceX criticising local shareholding laws while backing equity equivalent programmes. Attaching astronomy-linked licensing conditions may further complicate attempts to introduce Starlink to the country of Musk's birth, where he has already said he is deterred by government Black empowerment policies. South Africa said it will review its Information and Communication Technology sector rules but will not back down on government policies to transform the economy three decades after white-minority rule ended. Scientists fear South Africa's Square Kilometre Array (SKA-Mid), the world's most powerful radio telescope together with another array co-hosted in Australia, will have their sensitive space observations distorted by Starlink's low-orbiting satellites. "It will be like shining a spotlight into someone's eyes, blinding us to the faint radio signals from celestial bodies," Federico Di Vruno, co-chair of International Astronomical Union Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky, told Reuters in a telephone interview. Di Vruno said the SKA Observatory, where he is spectrum manager, and the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) were lobbying for license requirements to reduce the impact on observations in certain frequency ranges, including some that SKA-Mid uses. That could direct Starlink to steer satellite beams away from SKA receivers or stop transmission for a few seconds to minimise interference, he said. South Africa's current SKA antennae, in the remote Northern Cape town of Carnarvon, use the 350 megahertz to 15.4 gigahertz bandwidth, a range also used by most satellite operators for downlinks. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa regulator and Starlink did not immediately respond to questions from Reuters about the scientists' concerns. MAJOR OBSERVATIONS South Africa's MeerKAT radio telescope, a precursor to SKA-Mid which will be incorporated into the larger instrument, has already discovered a rare giant radio galaxy that is 32 times the size of the Milky Way. Last year, it found 49 new galaxies in under three hours, according to SARAO. SKA Observatory, an international body, also campaigns for conditions on licensing agreements with other major satellite operators such as Amazon and Eutelsat's OneWeb to ensure quiet skies amid a boom in new satellite launches. "We are trying to follow different technical and regulatory avenues to mitigate this issue on the global stage," Di Vruno said.
New York Post
2 days ago
- New York Post
Astronomers baffled by mystery object flashing signals at Earth every 44 minutes: ‘Like nothing we've ever seen'
The truth is out there. Astronomers say they're stunned by an unidentified object flashing strange signals from deep space. The object, named ASKAP J1832-0911, was detected by the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) and NASA'S Chandra X-ray observatory — the world's most powerful X-ray telescope. 'It is unlike anything we have seen before,' Andy Wang, an astronomer at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, declared in a statement published this week. ASKAP J1832-0911 emits pulses of radio waves and X-rays for two minutes every 44 minutes, according to the experts, who documented their findings in Nature journal. An image of the sky showing the region around ASKAP J1832-0911. Ziteng Wang, ICRAR ASKAP J1832-0911 has been classified as a 'long-period transient' or 'LPT' — a cosmic body that emits radio pulses separated by a few minutes or a few hours. Wang and has team theorize that the object could be a dead star, but they don't know why it 'switches on' and 'switches off' at 'long, regular and unusual intervals,' reports. 'ASKAP J1831-0911 could be a magnetar (the core of a dead star with powerful magnetic fields), or it could be a pair of stars in a binary system where one of the two is a highly magnetised white dwarf (a low-mass star at the end of its evolution),' Wang wrote. 'However, even those theories do not fully explain what we are observing,' he added. 'This discovery could indicate a new type of physics or new models of stellar evolution.' Wang and his team hope to detect similar another using radio waves and the Chandra X-ray observatory, saying a subsequent discovery will help them learn more about the nature of such LPTs. An artist's illustration of NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory in space. NASA/CXC & J. Vaughan, NASA/CXC & J. Vaughan It's not the only space discovery to hit headlines and spark conversation in recent weeks. Earlier this month, Cambridge University Press revealed that astronomers had detected a signal extracted from interstellar noise that could be a sign of active biology on another planet. 'Astronomers have detected the most promising signs yet of a possible biosignature outside the solar system, although they remain cautious,' a press release from the prestigious publisher read.
Buzz Feed
3 days ago
- Buzz Feed
How ADHD Affects Driving Skills: What To Know
For people who are easily distracted, driving can feel like a stressful endeavor. From stoplights to traffic jams to honking horns, there's lots to consider when buckling your seat belt and hitting the gas. But while distracted driving is a danger for absolutely everyone, people with ADHD may have more to contend with when it comes to operating a vehicle. Research says that people with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder are more likely to get in a car crash that's their fault — and to get traffic tickets. There are a number of reasons this happens, and a lot of it has to do with the sheer number of distractions that can occur while driving. But experts say this research shouldn't discourage folks with ADHD, particularly those who manage their diagnosis well. Below, experts share what you should know about this research and what drivers who have trouble focusing should do to stay safe on the road. People with ADHD are at a higher risk of car accidents because of increased distractions. 'If you do a research study where you look at 1,000 people with ADHD, and you compare them to 1,000 people who are perfectly matched in every way except they don't have the ADHD diagnosis and then you follow them, and you look at the rate of car accidents, you'll see that the rate of car accidents, most likely, is increased in the people with ADHD in that group of 1,000 people a little bit,' said Dr. Will Cronenwett, the vice chair for clinical affairs in the department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern University in Illinois. Research in teenagers found that those with ADHD had a 9% higher chance of getting into a car accident that was their fault. Inattentive behavior was the top reason for accidents, while another reason was driving at an unsafe speed. Why might this be? According to Jackie Morrison, a licensed marriage and family therapist in Minnesota, the ADHD brain filters information in a different manner than a neurotypical brain. ADHD is known to cause trouble focusing and inattention in folks with the disorder, which can, of course, also lead to trouble on the road. 'There is, in a lot of cases, a truly different amount of information that is coming in. And your brain isn't filtering out as many distractions,' explained Morrison. 'And so things that an ADHD brain is picking up on might be significantly more than a neurotypical brain, and so there are literally more distractions sometimes for an ADHD brain,' she said. With an ADHD brain, you need more stimulation and engagement to get your brain in the 'task-positive network,' said Morrison. 'The task-positive network is the grouping of your brain systems that turn on and activate when you're engaged in a task and helps you focus,' she added. If there isn't enough stimulation, which can happen when you're driving, your brain isn't going to go in this network. Both experts stressed that these research findings don't mean that individual ADHD drivers are any worse than other drivers on the road. 'You can say on a population level that ... having a disorder that impairs your attention does increase the risk for driving accidents in that population, but you can't say anything about a particular individual,' Cronenwett noted. Meaning, someone with an ADHD diagnosis who manages their ADHD properly can be a safer driver than someone without ADHD. 'I would caution against people looking at the ADHD label as either a flag for 'now I'm at risk' versus not at risk,' he added. 'Because people with ADHD can be very well-treated, and their symptoms can be under control, and they can be quite safe,' explained Cronenwett. Distracted driving, in general, can lead to traffic incidents. Just because someone doesn't have ADHD doesn't mean they're a safe driver by default. There are plenty of other distractions — cellphones, other passengers, day-to-day stress, exhaustion, and more — that can put anyone at a higher risk of an accident. For example, 'people won't be able to pay as good attention to the road when they are fatigued,' said Cronenwett. In fact, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 633 car crashes happened as a result of drowsy driving in 2023. 'So, I wouldn't want people to just look at the [ADHD] diagnosis as if that determines whether they are at risk at any particular given moment,' noted Cronenwett. Instead of focusing on your diagnosis before you start driving, focus on how you feel. Before getting in your car, take note of how you're feeling. Are you tired? Are you distracted because of an argument with your partner? This way, you can decide if you have the faculties to safely operate your car. And this is true for anyone — not just those with ADHD, said Cronenwett. 'Any number of things influence somebody's risk more than just the strict presence or absence of a label,' he said. If you don't feel focused enough to drive, don't do it. 'I think we can all agree that distracted drivers, or inattentive drivers, are at risk for having car crashes, and they should certainly be very, very careful in their own driving habits,' said Cronenwett. Once again, people can be distracted because they're tired, because of stressful social situations or even from depression and anxiety, he added. 'So, any type of inattentive or distracted driving puts somebody at risk,' he said. If you don't have an ADHD diagnosis and want one, Morrison said it could be a good idea to find a doctor or therapist in the field who has an understanding of ADHD and can help you learn more about how your brain works so you can efficiently and safely move through the world. For people who can't get diagnosed because of a lack of insurance coverage, long appointment wait times or for whatever reason, Morrison recommends mindfulness as a way to combat distractions. 'Be aware of your body in space and your breath for a few minutes at a time, and let thoughts move in and out ... you're just experiencing what it's like to be in your body at that moment in time. [It] can be really helpful because it gives your brain a chance to run around off its leash, if you will, and it also gives you practice being present without distracting yourself and without stimulation,' Morrison noted. 'And when you're driving, it can be boring — so, basically you're practicing getting bored,' she said. It can also be helpful to train your brain to move slower, said Morrison — 'because the ADHD brain wants to go fast and it wants to be efficient, even though, arguably, it can be very inefficient at times.' Instead of rushing to prep food or unpack your groceries, take your time while doing it, said Morrison. '[This] can be helpful just to help your body become more comfortable with that inefficiency or that slowness,' Morrison noted. 'Your body and brain want to move fast, and that's not always the safest option when driving, so you're literally helping your body to practice being slow and inefficient, to just get used to that discomfort,' she said. When you're driving, Morrison said it's a good idea to avoid audiobooks or music that you hyper-focus on, and instead turn on options that hold your attention, but don't totally distract you from the road. And it goes without saying, you should not be looking at your phone while driving (this goes for everyone — ADHD or not), said Morrison. HuffPost.
