When a large star reaches the end of its life, it uses up all its fuel and explodes. This phenomenon is known as supernova. After the explosion, the remnants of the star—called neutron star— they are bunched up and squeezed into a very compact ball. Then the neutron star begins to rotate at an almost miraculous speedmaking a turn in fractions of a second.
However, a dissident has been found. A group of scientists has discovered that the star ASKAP J1935+2148 late 54 minutes to complete the rotation. The study, led by scientist Manisha Caleb of the University of Sydney and Emil Lenc of CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, has already been published in Nature to the fascination of astronomers.
What has happened to J1935+2148 is the following: exploded 16 billion light years ago (its signal has now reached Earth). As is customary among supernovae, a neutron star was created from its remains. The peculiarity comes now: the neutrons They move at an extremely slow speed compared to its other supernova sisters. It’s as if you signed up a tricycle to race in Formula 1.
“In the study of radio-emitting neutron stars we are used to extremes, but this discovery of a compact star that It spins so slowly and still emits radio waves it was unexpected”explains Ben Stappers, professor of astrophysics at the University of Manchester and participant in the study.
What exactly is a supernova?
Researchers do not rule out that the signal is actually a star white dwarf with a very powerful magnetic field. However, it is found isolated, does not have any highly magnetic white dwarf around, so the theory of the neutron star, that it is a tricycle, gains more strength. In any case, more research is needed to know exactly what has been found.
It is difficult to understand the magnitude of a supernova. It is the biggest explosion a human can imagine. In just one second, a supernova releases the energy of 10³° atomic bombs (a 1 followed by 30 zeros). Then, they concentrate all of the star’s mass into a very small space. In the case of ASKAP J1935+2148, its mass is 1.4 times that of the sun and, after its explosion, it has packed all that amount into a 10-kilometer radius.
According to NASA, supernovae are not very common. They are only produced two or three every century in galaxies like ours, the Milky Way. Scientists sometimes use supernovae to measure the distances of the universe.
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