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WIRED
26-05-2025
- Science
- WIRED
The Milky Way Has a Mysterious ‘Broken Bone'
May 26, 2025 5:00 AM Galactic bones, filaments of radio-wave-emitting particles, run through our galaxy, and one of them has a fracture. New analysis suggests collision with a neutron star may have caused it. A photo of the galactic bone known as The Snake. Photograph: NASA/CXC/Northwestern University If you look at the Milky Way through a powerful telescope, you'll notice that close to the center of the galaxy there are elongated filaments that seem to outline its spiral shape. Scientists have a nickname for these structures: 'galactic bones.' Recently, astronomers found that one of the Milky Way's bones is 'fractured,' and they believe they've now found a possible culprit: a neutron star that may have collided with it. According to NASA, these bones are huge elongated formations of energized particles that spiral along magnetic fields running through the galaxy. The particles release radio waves, and so are detectable using radio telescopes. Scientists have found several such bones in the galaxy, but one of the most striking is called G359.13142-0.20005, also known as 'the Snake.' It is a 230-light-year-long filament that appears to have a fracture. It is also one of the brightest. One of the first explanations was that some as yet undetected body had disturbed the filament. A study by Harvard University, published in the journal Monthly Notice of the Royal Astronomical Society , set out to test this hypothesis. The research team involved found signs of a pulsar, a neutron star spinning at high speed, in the same region as the broken bone. These stars are extremely dense, and are the small remnants left after the explosion of a supermassive star. Using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, which orbits Earth, along with the MeerKAT telescope array in South Africa and the Very Large Array in New Mexico—two systems that detect radio waves—scientists found what appear to be traces of a pulsar in the filament. Based on data from these observatories, they estimate that this pulsar impacted the bone at a speed of between 1,609,000 and 3,218,000 kilometers per hour. The suspected collision is thought to have distorted the magnetic field of the bone, causing its radio signal to deform. The structure G359.13, with the fracture visible on its right-hand side. Photograph: NASA/CXC/Northwestern University In the above image provided by NASA, the Snake can be seen, and there is a body that appears to be interacting with the structure, in the middle of its length. It is possibly the aforementioned neutron star. Pulsars are alternative versions of a neutron star where, in addition to being compact objects, they rotate at high velocities and produce strong magnetic fields. At the moment there is no instrument that can see them directly due to their size and distance, but radio telescopes can detect the electromagnetic waves they emit and hear them by converting these into sound. This story originally appeared on WIRED en Español and has been translated from Spanish.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists find rare double-star system where one star orbited inside the other
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Astronomers may have discovered a rare type of binary star system, where one star used to orbit inside its partner. In the new study, astronomers investigated a pulsar known as PSR J1928+1815 located about 455 light-years from Earth. A pulsar is a kind of neutron star, a corpse of a large star that perished in a catastrophic explosion known as a supernova. The gravitational pull of the star's remains would have been strong enough to crush together protons and electrons to form neutrons, meaning a neutron star is mostly made of neutrons. That makes it very (very) dense. Pulsars are spinning neutron stars that emit twin beams of radio waves from their magnetic poles. These beams appear to pulse because astronomers see them only when a pulsar pole is pointed at Earth. The researchers estimate this particular pulsar was born from a hot blue star more than eight times the sun's mass. Using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) in China, the world's largest single-dish telescope, the astronomers discovered PSR J1928+1815 had a companion, a helium star with about 1 to 1.6 times the sun's mass. This star has lost most — or all — of its outer layers of hydrogen, leaving behind a core made up mostly of helium. These stars in this pair are currently only about 700,000 miles (1.12 million kilometers) apart, or about 50 times closer than Mercury is to the sun, study co-author Jin-Lan Han, chair of the radio astronomy division of the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, told They complete an orbit around each other in just 3.6 hours. PSR J1928+1815 is a millisecond pulsar, which means it whirls extraordinarily rapidly, spinning nearly 100 times a second. Millisecond pulsars typically reach these dizzying speeds as they cannibalize nearby companions — the inrushing material makes them gyrate faster and faster. Previous research suggested that, as millisecond pulsars feed on their partners, these binary systems may experience a "common envelope" phase, in which the pulsar orbits within the outer layers of its companion. However, scientists have never detected such exotic binaries — perhaps until now. Related Stories: — This astronomer found a sneaky extra star in James Webb Space Telescope data — Hubble Telescope sees wandering black hole slurping up stellar spaghetti — Giant young star is growing by 2 Jupiter masses every year, new study shows Using computer models, the researchers suggest the members of this newfound binary started at a distance from each other about twice that between Earth and the sun (185 million miles, or 299 million km), Han said. The pulsar would have then started siphoning off its companion's outer layers, forming a common envelope around them both. After roughly 1,000 years, the pulsar would have spiraled close to its partner's core, which likely flung away the last of this envelope, leaving behind a tightly bound binary system. Based on the estimated number of binary stars in the Milky Way that roughly match this newfound system, the researchers suggest only 16 to 84 counterparts of PSR J1928+1815 and its companion may exist in our galaxy. (For context, the Milky Way hosts about 100 billion to 400 billion stars.) The scientists detailed their findings online May 22 in the journal Science.
Gizmodo
22-05-2025
- Science
- Gizmodo
One Star Is Orbiting Inside Another in This Never-Before-Seen Binary System
For the first time, astronomers have spotted a rapidly spinning neutron star that is gravitationally bound to a helium star companion. The discovery of this unusual binary system helps confirm a long theorized—but rarely seen—cosmic process called common envelope evolution. Binary star systems, or pairs of stars that orbit around each other, are very common. In fact, it's estimated that 85% of stars in the universe have at least one companion. But this newly discovered pair is unlike any seen before. In this case, a helium star is bound to a millisecond pulsar: a fast-spinning neutron star that emits beams of radiation at regular intervals. These stars achieve their extraordinary rotation rates by siphoning matter from nearby stellar companions. In May 2020, a team of researchers led by Jin Lin Han, a radio astronomer at the National Astronomical Observatories and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, used China's FAST radio telescope to detect weak signals from a point deep within the Milky Way galaxy. A few months later, the researchers confirmed that these signals were radiation emissions from a pulsar. They then tracked these bursts for four and a half years, and their measurements revealed that this star isn't alone. It's actually part of a binary system, orbiting its companion every 3.6 hours. But for one-sixth of that orbit, the pulsar's radiation is blocked—or eclipsed—by its companion. 'That's a large part of the orbit,' Han told Gizmodo. 'That's strange, only a larger companion can do this.' In binary systems, a millisecond pulsar is usually accompanied by a white dwarf: a hot, dense core left behind after a star like our Sun has exhausted its fuel. But the data Han and his colleagues collected indicated that this companion had to lie somewhere in between a compact object and a normal star, he said. Further investigation of this strange companion revealed that it is roughly as massive as our Sun, but it couldn't be a normal star because it was undetectable in all wavelengths outside of the radio spectrum. This led the researchers to conclude that it's a star stripped clean of its hydrogen, leaving behind a core primarily composed of helium. They published their findings today in the journal Science. This type of binary system 'has never been discovered before,' Han said. But it has long been theorized that such a pairing could form via common envelope evolution, and he and his colleagues believe that's what happened here. 'The process of common envelope evolution is slightly different to how stars like pulsars are often thought to interact in binary systems,' Duncan Lorimer, a professor of physics and astronomy at West Virginia University who was not involved in the study, told Gizmodo in an email. Normally, a neutron star's intense gravitational field pulls material from a companion star that has expanded, allowing its gaseous outer layers to be 'eaten' by the neutron star, he explained. This process, called accretion, causes the neutron star to 'spin up' and become a pulsar. But in common envelope evolution, 'the companion star is so large that its outer layers engulf the neutron star as well,' Lorimer said. 'This acts as a brake on the whole binary system.' Inside the companion star's outer layers—the envelope—friction causes the pulsar and the companion's core to spiral toward each other, forming a highly compact binary system, like the one Han and his colleagues have now observed. With an orbital period of just 3.6 hours, this pulsar and its companion are circling each other very closely. Ultimately, the outer layers of the companion star are expelled, Lorimer said, which explains why this millisecond pulsar's helium star companion has been stripped. 'The evolutionary pathway that the authors set out, it's not a surprising pathway,' Victoria Kaspi, a professor of physics at McGill University who was not involved in the study, told Gizmodo. 'It's one that has been recognized, identified, discussed in detail for many years.' 'The interesting question is, if you're going to find 1,000 millisecond pulsars, what fraction of them will be like this one? It's about one in 1,000—something like that. And they found it,' she said. Han and his colleagues believe there are more than a dozen other systems like this one in our galaxy, making them exceptionally rare. The fact that these researchers found one of them is a 'great breakthrough,' Lorimer said. 'The more millisecond pulsars we find, the more likely we are to find examples of rare evolutionary outcomes. This system is an excellent example of that,' he said.
Gizmodo
10-05-2025
- Science
- Gizmodo
Rogue Pulsar Snaps Galactic Bone in Milky Way's Spine
A galactic filament that stretches across 230 light-years in the Milky Way has suffered from a strange kink that has distorted its magnetic field, appearing as a fracture in a massive bone. New X-ray images captured by the Chandra Observatory may have finally helped astronomers diagnose its ailment, naming a fast-spinning neutron star as the culprit. The center of the galaxy is marked by enormous, bone-like structures threaded with parallel magnetic fields and swirling, high-energy particles. Located roughly 26,000 light-years from Earth, G359.13—also known as The Snake—is the longest and brightest of these structures. Despite its size, the bone-like structure appears to have been struck by a fast-moving, rapidly spinning neutron star, or pulsar, causing a break in the otherwise continuous length of G359.13, according to a new paper published in the May 2024 issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Using images of the galactic bone captured by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and radio data from the MeerKAT radio array in South Africa, the team behind the paper was able to examine the fracture up close to identify the culprit. The particles that make up the Snake, and other galactic filaments, emit radio waves, which can be detected by arrays such as MeerKAT. The images fittingly resemble medical X-rays of a long, thin bone with a fracture in the center. By examining the images, the astronomers discovered an X-ray and radio source at the location of the fracture, which may come from electrons and positrons (the antimatter counterparts to electrons) that have been accelerated to high energies due to a pulsar smashing into them. The pulsar can be seen in the image thanks to its X-ray emissions, which caused it to get caught red-handed in its hit and run. Pulsars are the chaotic remains of stars, forming in the aftermath of the collapse and supernova explosion of a massive star. These explosions often send the pulsar flying at high speeds while rapidly rotating and beaming electromagnetic radiation. There's a lot going on here, and the pulsar isn't exactly watching where it's going. The researchers believe a speedy pulsar may have caused the fracture by smashing into G359.13 at speeds between one million and two million miles per hour. The likely collision distorted the magnetic field in the bone, which caused the radio signal to also become warped. The Milky Way is full of violent encounters like this, and the busted filament is just the latest sign of the galaxy's ongoing chaos. With tools like Chandra and MeerKAT, astronomers are continuing to catch these cosmic troublemakers in the act.
