neutron stars

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It's Blinked in Space Every 22 Minutes for 30 Years

Astronomers never spotted unusual magnetar because they didn't expect it to be there

(Newser) - Writer Aldous Huxley said "consistency is contrary to nature." He'd maybe never heard of neutron stars or fast radio bursts. A study noted by Gizmodo and published in Nature found that a rotating neutron star with a powerful magnetic field, or a magnetar, has puzzled astronomers since...

In Our 'Galactic Backyard,' Signals Never Seen Before
'Spooky' Find Could
Be New Kind of Star
NEW STUDY

'Spooky' Find Could Be New Kind of Star

Signals never observed before may point to ultra-long period magnetar

(Newser) - Something in our galaxy was emitting radio wave beams every 20 minutes, unlike anything observed before, and astronomers think they know what it is. "It's definitely not aliens," says Natasha Hurley-Walker, radio astronomer and lead author of a study on the mysterious object, published in the journal...

Black Hole Seen Swallowing Densest Object in Universe

That would be a neutron star

(Newser) - Talk about a heavy snack. For the first time, astronomers have witnessed a black hole swallowing a neutron star, the most dense object in the universe—all in a split-second gulp. Ten days later they saw the same thing, on the other side of the universe, the AP reports. In...

Astronomers Find Source of Mysterious Radio Burst

It was tracked to a 'magnetar' in our own galaxy

(Newser) - A flash of luck helped astronomers solve a cosmic mystery: What causes powerful but fleeting radio bursts that zip and zigzag through the universe? Scientists have known about these energetic pulses—called fast radio bursts—for about 13 years and have seen them coming from outside our galaxy, which makes...

Behold, a 'New Era in Astronomy' Is Born

Researchers witness collision of 2 neutron stars, and the result is monumental

(Newser) - It was a faint signal, but it told of one of the most violent acts in the universe, and it would soon reveal secrets of the cosmos, including how gold was created, per the AP . What astronomers witnessed in August and revealed Monday was the long-ago collision of two neutron...

Gold's Origins Discovered ... in Space

Star collision produces untold quantities of the shiny stuff

(Newser) - If you've got, say, a gold wedding ring, you are currently wearing a memento from the collision of two neutron stars. Or at least, that's what scientists hypothesize after witnessing one such collision in space, seemingly answering a longstanding scientific quandary, the LA Times reports. Neutron stars are...

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