Space
Astronomers Find First Ever Star With A Solid Surface
Astronomers have announced the discovery of a magnetized neutron star which seems to have an entirely solid surface.
As far as current scientific knowledge goes, stars are massive celestial bodies that consist primarily of gas and plasma, and do not have a solid surface. The gravitational forces that act on the gases in a star cause them to compress and heat up, eventually leading to nuclear fusion reactions in the core that produce light and heat.
While there are various types of stars, such as red giants, white dwarfs, and neutron stars, none of these types are known to have a solid surface. But that changes now.
An multinational group of 50 researchers analyzed information from the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), a satellite that NASA and the Italian Space Agency launched in December 2021. Their findings were published in the journal Science. The researchers collected data on the neutron star with the oblique designation 4U 0142+61.
Neutron star 4U 0142+61 is a pulsating X-ray source located in the constellation Cassiopeia, approximately 13,000 light-years from Earth. It is a type of neutron star known as an anomalous X-ray pulsar (AXP), which is characterized by its unusual X-ray emission and strong magnetic field.
4U 0142+61 was first discovered in the 1980s as a persistent X-ray source, and later identified as a pulsar through its periodic X-ray emission. The pulsation period of 4U 0142+61 is around 8.7 seconds, and it exhibits a high degree of stability over long periods of time.
One of the most remarkable features of 4U 0142+61 is its extremely strong magnetic field, which is estimated to be around 10^14 Gauss. This makes it one of the most strongly magnetized neutron stars known, and it is thought to be responsible for the pulsar’s unusual X-ray emission.
The X-ray emission from 4U 0142+61 is believed to be powered by the decay of the pulsar’s magnetic field, which creates a hot, magnetized plasma around the neutron star. The X-rays are emitted as the plasma interacts with the strong magnetic field, and the periodic pulsations are thought to be caused by the rotation of the neutron star and its magnetic field.
Overall, neutron star 4U 0142+61 is an important object of study for astronomers, as it provides insights into the properties and behavior of neutron stars, as well as the mechanisms that produce high-energy radiation in the universe.
Recent observations of 4U 0142+61 using X-ray telescopes have detected “quasi-periodic oscillations” in its X-ray emission. These oscillations are thought to be caused by vibrations or seismic waves traveling through the crust of the neutron star, indicating that the crust is solid.
4U 0142+61 is actually a solid body or so it appears. Based on the most recent information from IXPE, the researchers in Science claim that it is very improbable that the energy originating from 4U would be “compatible with the existence of an atmosphere and just marginally compatible with a condensed surface.”
The atoms in this solid crust, which is most likely formed of iron, would be warped, losing their spherical shape and being stretched and extended in the magnetic field’s direction instead.
These magnetic forces would hold the ions together to create a lattice. In other words, the surface could not be made of neutrons but rather of “normal” stuff, such as the iron that makes up Earth.
“This was completely unexpected. I was convinced there would be an atmosphere,” one of the study’s lead authors, professor Silvia Zane, a member of the IXPE science team, said in a statement. There could be an alternative explanation here, but so far, there isn’t enough data to explore these other possibilities. “A next step is to observe hotter neutron stars with a similar magnetic field, to investigate how the interplay between temperature and magnetic field affects the properties of the star’s surface.”
Reference(s): Research Paper, News Statement
A former US Air Force fighter pilot asserts that he has deciphered
the method behind the extraordinary maneuvers of UFOs, reports dailystar.co.uk.
Over
the past two decades, numerous military encounters with these enigmatic
crafts have been reported, prompting a significant investigation by the
Pentagon.
One of the most renowned sightings occurred during the
USS Nimitz encounter, where fighter pilots witnessed a UFO descending
from 28,000 feet to just above sea level in less than a second.
This
astonishing movement would imply that the craft reached a staggering
speed of 19,000 miles per hour, a velocity that would be fatal to any
human pilot.
According
to Chris Lehto, a former USAF pilot, the craft exhibits two key
characteristics: it moves without inertia, essentially lacking weight,
and it accelerates at an incredibly rapid pace without affecting its
surroundings.
Image: NATO Allied Air Command/Facebook
Chris
believes that the explanation lies within a technology that seems
straight out of science fiction. He proposes that the answer to the UFO
enigma lies in the Alcubierre Drive, a theoretical interstellar engine
conceptualized by Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre in 1994.
The
Alcubierre Drive employs a form of “space warp” technology, reminiscent
of what has been depicted in episodes of Star Trek. By bending space, a
craft inside a “warp bubble” could potentially travel at or even
surpass the speed of light without violating the known laws of physics.
While
the Alcubierre Drive remains a hypothetical concept with challenges to
overcome, Chris notes that the required energy is no longer believed to
be unattainably large.
Patents
filed with the US patent office outline the potential workings of the
drive, as well as another groundbreaking technology theorized by
American aerospace engineer Salvatore Pais.
Pais suggests that
high-powered rotating magnets could theoretically eliminate an object’s
inertia, and he has filed a patent for a starship based on this
principle.
However, Chris maintains skepticism regarding Pais’
theory. He explains that while Pais’s patent applications for the US
Navy attracted attention for their potential energy-related
applications, doubts have been raised about their feasibility. There is
speculation that they may be scams, pseudoscience, or disinformation
intended to mislead adversaries of the United States.
Alternatively,
rival theories propose that the “Tic Tac” UFO is a classified Pentagon
project testing similar advanced technologies discussed by Chris.
Scientists say they have found evidence of a new Earth-like
planet that has suddenly appeared in our Solar System and is orbiting
the Sun.
Physicists, including those from the National Astronomical Observatory
of Japan, said the planet is likely to be the mysterious ‘Planet Nine’
that was hypothesised to exist in the far outer edges of the Solar
System.
Several studies in the past have suggested there is likely an
undiscovered planet beyond the Kuiper Belt – a stellar disk of materials
such as asteroids, space rocks, comets around the Sun in the outer
Solar System past the orbit of Neptune.
Independent.co.uk reports: In the new research, published recently in The Astronomical Journal, scientists
found that some of the objects in the Kuiper Belt behave in a way
indicative of the presence of a small planet among them.
One such object, they said, is about 500 astronomical units (AU) from
the Sun, where 1 AU is the distance between the Sun and the Earth.
In comparison Neptune is at a distance of 30 AUs from the Sun.
Some of these were also found to have “odd” orbits suggesting they
are being pull by the gravity of a cosmic entity larger than those that
typically influence such objects.
Computer simulations run by the scientists indicate that the most
likely explanation for the observations was another hidden planet in the
Kuiper Belt.
“We predict the existence of an Earth-like planet,” researchers wrote in the study.
“It is plausible that a primordial planetary body could survive in
the distant Kuiper Belt as a Kuiper Belt planet (KBP), as many such
bodies existed in the early solar system,” they added.
If such a planet exists, researchers say it would have a mass about
1.5 to 3 times that of Earth with an inclination of about 30 degrees.
They say the theorised planet’s orbit would likely place it between 250 and 500 AU from the Sun.
Researchers say the discovery of such a planet close to the Kuiper
Belt can unravel new constraints on planet formation and evolution.
“In conclusion, the results of the KBP scenario support the existence
of a yet-undiscovered planet in the far outer solar system,” scientists
noted.
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