A strange oscillation in data from NASA’s NICER telescope has led scientists to a deadly object spinning at an astonishing 716 times per second.
The research team, led by astrophysicist Gaurava Jaisawal from the Danish Technical University, analyzed data from NASA’s NICER telescope to study a deceased object and inadvertently discovered it to be an unprecedented anomaly.
This object is located approximately 27,400 light-years away from us and is a “returning from the dead”: neutron star.
Data from NASA’s telescope reveals a deadly object spinning at an incredible speed – (Graphic: PHYS).
When a massive star explodes in a brilliant death known as a supernova, its core collapses, leaving behind a compact but extremely powerful “zombie” known as a neutron star.
Neutron stars have a mass ranging from about 1.1 to 2.3 times that of the Sun, but their diameter is only about 20 kilometers.
The neutron star that Dr. Jaisawal and his colleagues studied exhibits many peculiar traits.
According to a paper published in the scientific journal The Astrophysical Journal, it belongs to a binary star system named 4U 1820-30, with a companion that is a white dwarf – the “zombie” of Sun-sized stars.
This pair orbits each other with a period of only 11.4 minutes, allowing the more powerful neutron star to continuously siphon material from its companion.
Each time the neutron star expands, a small explosion occurs, ejecting the excess material. The research team recorded 15 such thermonuclear explosions from 2017 to 2022.
However, there was a strange signal in the data: One of the explosions contained an oscillation at a frequency of 716 Hertz.
The researchers investigated and concluded that this unusual signal was due to the neutron star spinning at 716 times per second, nearly reaching the theoretical limit of 730 times per second.
Neutron stars that spin this rapidly are known as pulsars, and the star in the 4U 1820-30 system is the fastest-spinning pulsar ever known.
