Pulsar defies understanding, projecting energy levels previously thought to be exclusive to black holes
Offline Impossibly bright dead star: X-ray source in the Cigar Galaxy is the first ultraluminous pulsar ever detected
Date:
October 8, 2014
Source:
California Institute of Technology
Summary:
Astronomers working with NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) have found a pulsating dead star beaming with the energy of about 10 million suns. The object, previously thought to be a black hole because it is so powerful, is in fact a pulsar -- the incredibly dense rotating remains of a star.
Excerpt:
The reason most astronomers had assumed black holes were powering ULXs is that these X-ray sources are so incredibly bright. Black holes can be anywhere from 10 to billions of times the mass of the sun, making their gravitational tug much stronger than that of a pulsar. As matter falls onto the black hole the gravitational energy turns it to heat, which creates X-ray light. The bigger the black hole, the more energy there is to make the object shine.
Surprised to see the flashes coming from M82, the NuSTAR team checked and rechecked the data. The flashes were really there, with a pulse showing up every 1.37 seconds.
The next step was to figure out which X-ray source was producing the flashes. Walton and several other Caltech researchers analyzed the data from NuSTAR and a second NASA X-ray telescope, Chandra, to rule out about 25 different X-ray sources, finally settling on a ULX known as M82X-2 as the source of the flashes.
With the pulsar and its location within M82 identified, there are still many questions left to answer. It is many times higher than the Eddington limit, a basic physics guideline that sets an upper limit on the brightness that an object of a given mass should be able to achieve.
"This is the most extreme violation of that limit that we've ever seen," says Walton. "We have known that things can go above that by a small amount, but this blows that limit away."
Full article:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141008133407.htm
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
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Currently defies understanding. We used to not understand lots of things we now understand.
Still awesome to think about.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
Adding the term 'currently' changes absolutely nothing.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Still angry about Bob?
What a load of crap. You don't find an answer in science by throwing your hands up and say "FUCK IT, it defies understanding".
Neil Degrasse Tyson would not want you in his lab with that attitude.
"Defies" is really a lack of understanding in the moment. It ceases to defy anything once you understand it, thus the usage of the word "currently".
Same reason god claims shrink in our scientific history of discovery. Once uknown becomes known. You don't simply stop when you hit a wall. You look for a solution to find the answer.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
Still making shit up?
What a load of crap. You don't discover anything in science by adding words to a statement which do not alter the meaning of that statement in any way, shape, or form.
Neil Degrasse Tyson wouldn't even look at an irrational idiot like yourself, and I couldn't care less what he'd think of me. I'm quite sure that it would be favourable in comparison to you, which I say only because you seem to care.
If it defies understanding, then by definition the term 'currently' is already incorporated into the statement, and adding the term doesn't change the statement in any way. Go back to grade one and start learning how to speak and write in English.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
I imagine not, since he doesn't have one. I don't think he has been the lead author of any research publications for over 20 years. Not that I am cricizing him for it, but he isn't a labcoat, roll up the sleeves and analyze data researcher and hasn't been for decades. His career went a completely different direction and takes place mostly in an office.
If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X
i love how brian projects his heroes onto everyone else. vastet cares enough about tyson to wish he could work in his "lab," i care enough about hitchens to attack him as a "maoist" (or anything else), and saying jefferson did or did not support something is some kind of hole card in a debate.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
Way to stare at my fingertip when I am pointing at the moon.
It does not matter when he stopped working actively in a lab, he has always pormoted science and the ethic of all scientists in that you dont simply stop and say "fuck it, we cant know any more than this".
Since you are in business you should understand that the ones that survive are the ones who don't give up and look for ways to adapt. THAT was not about him personally, it was about overall attitude in ethics as what kind of CLIMATE you would want in the scientific community. That way if one scientist cannot figure it out, another one might eventually figure it out.
Just like a starting QB who gets old passes down his knowledge to a younger backup.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
iow, "never mind that i fuck up my details and facts all the time, pay attention to the vague, trite gist of what i'm saying!"
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
And never mind that it's incoherent.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.