Newly Found Celestial Object Teeters Between Two Extreme Scenarios

 

Title: Mysterious Celestial Dance: Pulsar Companion Challenges Mass Gap in Astronomy

Astronomy enthusiasts have another cosmic enigma to ponder as an international team of researchers identifies a dense compact object orbiting a pulsar. What sets this discovery apart is the puzzling mass of the object, placing it within the elusive mass gap category. It could either be the heaviest-known neutron star or the lightest black hole.

When stars heavier than the Sun undergo supernova, they can give rise to two distinct objects. If they aren't too massive, they collapse into neutron stars—stellar entities composed solely of neutrons with staggering density. Neutron stars, like the millisecond pulsar PSR J0514−4002E in this study, are fast-spinning celestial bodies emitting periodic pulsations, akin to precise cosmic clocks.

The alternative outcome of a supernova is a black hole—an immensely dense entity where not even light can escape. Theoretically, the heaviest neutron star is around 2.2 times the Sun's mass, while the lightest black hole is anticipated to be roughly five solar masses. Between these extremes lies the mysterious mass gap, challenging our understanding of neutron stars.

The pulsar's companion in this discovery boasts a mass ranging from 2.09 to 2.71 times that of the Sun. This opens the possibility of it being part of a pulsar-black hole system or a system with two pulsating neutron stars.

Professor Ben Stappers of The University of Manchester remarked, "Either possibility for the nature of the companion is exciting. A pulsar–black hole system will be an important target for testing theories of gravity, and a heavy neutron star will provide new insights into nuclear physics at very high densities."

Observing the pulsar's remarkable 170 spins per second using the MeerKAT radio observatory, researchers could estimate the system's properties with incredible precision, despite the celestial bodies being 40,000 light-years away.

Lead researcher Ewan Barr from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy said, "Think of it like being able to drop an almost perfect stopwatch into orbit around a star almost 40,000 light-years away and then being able to time those orbits with microsecond precision."

The team speculates that the companion didn't result directly from a supernova but originated from the merger of two neutron stars. This peculiar celestial system resides in a globular cluster—a dense collection of stars where interactions likely played a role in forming this extraordinary object.

As researchers continue their investigations, Arunima Dutta concluded, "We're not done with this system yet. Uncovering the true nature of the companion will [be] a turning point in our understanding of neutron stars, black holes, and whatever else might be lurking in the black hole mass gap."

The findings are detailed in a paper published in the journal Science.

ton 618

what is a black hole

sagittarius a

millisecond pulsar

sagittarius a*

astronomia

astronomy meaning

m87

milky way black hole

what is a pulsar

neutron stars

black hole at the center of the milky way

lifecycle of a star

why does a star remain stable