Mystery Object in Deep Space Is Confounding Astronomers

A team of scientists found a compact object 40,000 light-years from Earth that is either a very massive neutron star or an itsy-bitsy black hole, but they’re not sure which.

WatchRemake this Sci-Fi Film with Peter Capaldi! CCShare SubtitlesOffEnglish“If a neutron star, it is probably the heaviest one known to date, with lessons for the uncertain physics of extremely dense nuclear matter,” said Maya Fishback, an astrophysicist at the University of Toronto who was not affiliated with the recent paper, in an associated Perspective article. “If a black hole, it may be the lightest known, which could affect the understanding of supernova explosions or dynamical interactions such as neutron star mergers inside globular clusters.”AdvertisementBoth neutron stars and black holes are venues for some of the universe’s AdvertisementThe object sits in Caldwell 73 (NGC 1851), a globular cluster that may have formed from two clusters that coalesced in a dwarf galaxy. It is half of a binary system, the other half being a pulsar, a rapidly rotating neutron star whose flashes of light astrophysicists can use to measure things like The globular cluster Caldwell 73, home of the mystery object.Image: NASA, ESA, and G. Piotto (Universitàdegli Studi di Padova); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)AdvertisementThe team observed the binary with the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa. They calculated the total binary mass—3.887 solar masses, give or take .004, as well as the mass of the companion object, the higher estimate of which is 2.71 solar masses. (In 2019, a different team “In addition to the unusual companion mass of pulsar PSR J0514−4002E, the binary system’s total mass of 3.887 solar masses is remarkable,” Fishback added. “It is heavier than any known binary neutron star system.”AdvertisementThe research team believes the unique object—again, either one of the heaviest neutron stars or possibly the lightest-known black hole—formed in a merger between two neutron stars, regardless of its true nature. Though the team could not ultimately determine this unusual object’s identity, follow-up observations of similar compact objects in the same mass range may offer some clarity about the conditions in which neutron stars and black holes form and grow.AdvertisementMore:

Based on reporting by gizmodo.com.