When the fission swirling inside a star comes to an end—when gravity crushes the dwindling star’s fuel reservoir, the hydrogen atoms, and fuses them into the heavier helium nuclei, the universe will normally return to its Presenting the star with some imposing options for meeting its end.
After the collapse and demise of the supernova explosion, the star will become a dwarf (our Sun will likely retire), and its quiet core will become a celestial monument to its past glories, a soft haven of residual heat. Shine with fading. Alternatively, a star can collapse dramatically into a black hole. But the strangest stars will be neutron stars. A dead star is so dense that one teaspoon of its material has the same mass as 900 Great Pyramids of Giza.
Even more unusual is what 10% of dead neutron stars mysteriously turn into. NASA The most terrifyingly powerful A magnetic star in space called a magnetar. For decades, scientists have puzzled over its birth and sudden eruption. But Thursday might have changed everything.
For the first time ever, scientists believe they have glimpsed the most magnetic neutron star ever discovered on the verge of becoming a magnetar.
In an article published in the magazine on August 17, science, researchers detail their study of a pair of stars known as HD 45166, which was discovered about 3,000 miles from Earth 100 years ago. They discovered that one of the pair was a particularly rare Wolf-Rayet star. Its mass is twice that of the Sun, but its magnetic field is a staggering 43,000 Gauss, a unit of measurement for magnetic induction. Compared to our Sun’s 1 Gauss, HD 45166 is the most magnetic and massive star ever discovered.
The study’s first author, Tomar Chenard, an astronomer at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, was himself drawn to the mysterious object.
“This star has become a bit of an obsession for me,” Shenner said in the article. statement.
“I remember reading the literature and having an epiphany: ‘What if stars were magnetic?'”
And on the brink of unraveling one of astronomy’s most mysterious origin stories, who wouldn’t be smitten? Germany-based study co-author ESO astronomer Julia Bodensteiner joked about the star’s nickname within her team.
“Tomer and I call HD 45166 ‘Zombiestar,'” Bodensteiner said. “This is not only because this planet is so unique, but also because I jokingly said I would turn Tomer into a zombie.”
Another theory holds that the deformation of the magnetar is caused by intense heat and rotation at its core, but this theory is difficult to test as the magnetar is difficult to locate and observe. But the HD 45166 stands out, and it wasn’t easily explained by previous models.
Shenner’s obsession has become a globetrotter for him and his team. Moved by previous work on helium-rich stars like HD 45166, Shenner had a hunch as to why the star didn’t fit the usual description.
“I remember reading the literature and having this epiphany, ‘What if stars were magnetic?'” he said.
In February 2022, the team’s quest led them to the Pacific Ocean. Using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope at Mauna Kea Observatory on the Big Island, the team measured the magnetic field of HD 45166, relying on more archival data from Chile’s La Silla Observatory and confirmation of the discovery from the Royal Army College. I was able to do. Canada’s.
Shenner and his team have been rewarded for their tenacity. For the first time at least he has been able to draw one clear line of theory based on observable evidence, from supernovae to monstrous magnetars. Between them lies a whole new type of super-magnetic star, “hidden in plain sight,” says Shenner. forever. “
Interestingly, the key to the researchers’ theory is the duality of star pairs, and their mergers are, among other things, part of the mystery.
“We propose that magnetized Wolf-Rayet stars were formed by the merger of two low-mass helium stars,” the researchers say in their study.
It is not enough for a star to collapse into a dead neutron star after a supernova explosion. Rather, when two stars merge into one and form a single, overwhelmingly powerful magnetic core, the eventual collapse of the unified star will have all the characteristics of a magnetar precursor. becomes a neutron star.
“According to stellar evolution calculations, this component will explode as a supernova,” the researchers said.
There could still be multiple ways the magnetar formed, and we won’t be able to check the team’s calculations when the Wolf-Rayet star finally collapses in about a million years. But for now, Sheran and his team have gotten as close as possible to the terrifying creation of the most powerful magnet in the heavens.
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