{"id":8990,"date":"2014-10-09T22:04:15","date_gmt":"2014-10-10T02:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=8990"},"modified":"2014-10-09T22:04:15","modified_gmt":"2014-10-10T02:04:15","slug":"nustar-space-observatory-detects-brightest-pulsar-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=8990","title":{"rendered":"NuSTAR space observatory detects brightest pulsar ever"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NASA held a teleconference on Wednesday to announce new findings from the\u00a0Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nustar.caltech.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\">NuSTAR<\/a>) mission.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>The results describe an unusual source of X-rays that will leave theorists scratching their heads, but also will help astronomers learn more about how black holes and galaxies are formed.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Participants in the teleconference are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Paul Hertz, director of astrophysics division, NASA Headquarters, Washington<\/li>\n<li>Fiona Harrison, NuSTAR principal investigator, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena<\/li>\n<li>Matteo Bachetti, astronomer, University of Toulouse, France<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Jeanette Gladstone, astronomer, University of Alberta, Canada<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RcwiQ3-zLZM?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>===<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nustar.caltech.edu\/news\/nustar141008\" target=\"_d\">NASA&#8217;s NuSTAR Telescope Discovers Shockingly Bright Dead Star\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Astronomers have found a pulsating, dead star beaming with the energy of about 10 million suns. This is the brightest pulsar &#8211; a dense stellar remnant left over from a supernova explosion &#8211; ever recorded. The discovery was made with NASA&#8217;s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You might think of this pulsar as the &#8216;Mighty Mouse&#8217; of stellar remnants,&#8221; said Fiona Harrison, the NuSTAR principal investigator at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. &#8220;It has all the power of a black hole, but with much less mass.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The discovery appears in a new report in the Thursday, Oct. 9, issue of the journal Nature.<\/p>\n<p>The surprising find is helping astronomers better understand mysterious sources of blinding X-rays, called ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs). Until now, all ULXs were thought to be black holes. The new data from NuSTAR show at least one ULX, about 12 million light-years away in the galaxy Messier 82 (M82), is actually a pulsar.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The pulsar appears to be eating the equivalent of a black hole diet,&#8221; said Harrison. &#8220;This result will help us understand how black holes gorge and grow so quickly, which is an important event in the formation of galaxies and structures in the universe.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>ULXs are generally thought to be black holes feeding off companion stars &#8212; a process called accretion. They also are suspected to be the long-sought-after &#8220;medium-size&#8221; black holes &#8211; missing links between smaller, stellar-size black holes and the gargantuan ones that dominate the hearts of most galaxies. But research into the true nature of ULXs continues toward more definitive answers.<\/p>\n<p>NuSTAR did not initially set out to study the two ULXs in M82. Astronomers had been observing a recent supernova in the galaxy when they serendipitously noticed pulses of bright X-rays coming from the ULX known as M82 X-2. Black holes do not pulse, but pulsars do.<\/p>\n<p>Pulsars belong to a class of stars called neutron stars. Like black holes, neutron stars are the burnt-out cores of exploded stars, but puny in mass by comparison. Pulsars send out beams of radiation ranging from radio waves to ultra-high-energy gamma rays. As the star spins, these beams intercept Earth like lighthouse beacons, producing a pulsed signal.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We took it for granted that the powerful ULXs must be massive black holes,&#8221; said lead study author Matteo Bachetti, of the University of Toulouse in France. &#8220;When we first saw the pulsations in the data, we thought they must be from another source.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>NASA&#8217;s Chandra X-ray Observatory and Swift satellite also have monitored M82 to study the same supernova, and confirmed the intense X-rays of M82 X-2 were coming from a pulsar.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Having a diverse array of telescopes in space means that they can help each other out,&#8221; said Paul Hertz, director of NASA&#8217;s astrophysics division in Washington. &#8220;When one telescope makes a discovery, others with complementary capabilities can be called in to investigate it at different wavelengths.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The key to NuSTAR&#8217;s discovery was its sensitivity to high-energy X-rays, as well as its ability to precisely measure the timing of the signals, which allowed astronomers to measure a pulse rate of 1.37 seconds. They also measured its energy output at the equivalent of 10 million suns, or 10 times more than that observed from other X-ray pulsars. This is a big punch for something about the mass of our sun and the size of Pasadena.<\/p>\n<p>How is this puny, dead star radiating so fiercely? Astronomers are not sure, but they say it is likely due to a lavish feast of the cosmic kind. As is the case with black holes, the gravity of a neutron star can pull matter off companion stars. As the matter is dragged onto the neutron star, it heats up and glows with X-rays. If the pulsar is indeed feeding off surrounding matter, it is doing so at such an extreme rate as to have theorists scratching their heads.<\/p>\n<p>Astronomers are planning follow-up observations with NASA&#8217;s NuSTAR, Swift and Chandra spacecraft to find an explanation for the pulsar&#8217;s bizarre behavior. The NuSTAR team also will look at more ULXs, meaning they could turn up more pulsars. At this point, it is not clear whether M82 X-2 is an oddball or whether more ULXs beat with the pulse of dead stars. NuSTAR, a relatively small telescope, has thrown a big loop into the mystery of black holes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In the news recently, we have seen that another source of unusually bright X-rays in the M82 galaxy seems to be a medium-sized black hole,&#8221; said astronomer Jeanette Gladstone of the University of Alberta, Canada, who is not affiliated with the study. &#8220;Now, we find that the second source of bright X-rays in M82 isn&#8217;t a black hole at all. This is going to challenge theorists and pave the way for a new understanding of the diversity of these fascinating objects.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NASA held a teleconference on Wednesday to announce new findings from the\u00a0Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) mission. The results describe an unusual source of X-rays that will leave theorists scratching their heads, but also will help astronomers learn more about how black holes and galaxies are formed. Participants in the teleconference are: Paul Hertz, director &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=8990\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">NuSTAR space observatory detects brightest pulsar ever<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-2l0","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":483,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=483","url_meta":{"origin":8990,"position":0},"title":"Team of amateur and professional astronomers creates beautiful galaxy portrait","author":"TopSpacer","date":"February 7, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A collaboration between an amateur and a professional astronomer creates a grand image of a spiral galaxy using a mosaic of Hubble images: February 5, 2013: Working with astronomical image processors at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., renowned astrophotographer Robert Gendler has taken science data from the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"hs-2013-06-b-web[1]","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/hs-2013-06-b-web1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":26541,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=26541","url_meta":{"origin":8990,"position":1},"title":"ESO: Water vapor observed in planet formation disc","author":"TopSpacer","date":"February 29, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Another report from the European Southern Observatory (ESO): Astronomers reveal a new link between water and planet formation Researchers have found water vapour in the disc around a young star exactly where planets may be forming. 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