Astronomers have discovered a neutron star 3,000 light-years away

Astronomers have discovered a new “black widow binary” in the Milky Way. Just as a spider eats its mate, a neutron star slowly devours its moon.

Astronomers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – with the help of Canadian researchers – have announced the discovery of a new neutron star or pulsar 3,000 light-years from Earth.

Categorized as a “binary black widow” and located in the Milky Way, the pulsar is called ZTF J1406 + 1222 and orbits a smaller companion star, which will eventually take over (hence the category of black widow).

It has the shortest orbital period ever identified for pulsars, orbiting the companion star every 62 minutes. In addition, a third star orbits the two inner stars every 10,000 years, making her a “triple black widow.”

Such a unique formation so far puzzles scientists.

“It’s a complicated birth scenario,” said Kevin Burge, a doctoral student in papalardo at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s physics department. “This system probably sailed in the Milky Way longer than the sun is around.

Astronomers know of about two dozen binary images of a black widow in the Milky Way.

Burge’s team found the pulsar by detecting a flashing light from the accompanying star, not by the usual means of detecting gamma-ray pulsars and X-rays emitted by the pulsar.

It is said that this satellite star is many times hotter when faced with a pulsar.

“I thought instead of looking for the pulsar directly, try looking for the star who cooks,” Burge told MIT in a May 4 statement.

“This system is really unique to black widows because we found it in visible light and because of its broad satellite and the fact that it comes from the galactic center,” Burge said. “There are still many things we don’t understand about this. But we have a new way to look for these systems in the sky. ”

Neutron stars can provide important information for advancing the understanding of general relativity.

The study was co-authored by collaborators from a number of institutions, including the University of Warwick, Caltech, the University of Washington, the University of McGill and the University of Maryland.