Astronomers have discovered radio jets emanating from a neutron star with a strong magnetic field, which was deemed impossible based on current scientific evidence, according to a new study published today in the journal Nature.
A team of scientists led by researchers from the University of Amsterdam observed the object known as Swift J0243.6 + 6124 using the Karl G. Jansky radio telescope with very large arrays in New Mexico and the NASA space telescope, after which they came to unexpected conclusions. According to study co-author Associate Professor James Miller-Jones of the University of Curtin's International Center for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), “neutron stars are stellar corpses.”
'They form when a massive star runs out of fuel and a supernova occurs, and the central parts of the star collapse under its own gravity. This collapse causes the star's magnetic field to increase several trillion times that of our own sun, which then gradually weakens over hundreds of thousands of years. '
Student Jacob van den Eijnden of the University of Amsterdam, who led the study, noted that neutron stars and black holes are sometimes found in orbit from a nearby companion star.
“Gas from a companion star feeds a neutron star or black hole and produces spectacular effects when some of the material explodes in powerful jets moving at speeds close to the speed of light,” he said.
Astronomers have known of the existence of jets for decades, but so far they have only observed jets emanating from neutron stars with much weaker magnetic fields. The prevailing theory was that a strong enough magnetic field prevents the material from getting close enough to the neutron star to form jets.
“Black holes were considered the undisputed favorites in launching powerful jets, even if they only absorbed a small amount of material from their satellite (s),” Van den Einden said. 'However, faint jets belonging to neutron stars become bright enough to be seen when the star consumes gas from its companion at a very high speed. The magnetic field of a neutron star that we studied is about 10 trillion times stronger than that of our own Sun, so this is the first time we have observed a jet emanating from a neutron star with a very strong magnetic field. This discovery presents us with a whole new class of jet sources. '
Astronomers around the world are studying jets to better understand what causes them and how much energy they release into space. According to the author of the article, jets play a very important role in returning a huge amount of gravitational energy produced by neutron stars and black holes back into the environment. The search for jets from a neutron star with a strong magnetic field runs counter to what astronomers expected to see and shows that the nature of these phenomena is still far from fully understood.
