Star bright is an understatement.
A dead star known as the Vela pulsar redefined hit Earth with a blast of energy so powerful that scientists are at a loss to explain it, according to a new study detailing the cosmic fireworks display published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
“This discovery was so unexpected … that it somehow was difficult to understand,” said Arache Djannati-Atai, an astrophysicist with the Astroparticle & Cosmology laboratory in Paris, which helmed the illuminating research, in a statement.
Meanwhile, the phenomenon was also detected by the High Energy Stereoscopic System array in Namibia.
This is the most high-energy burst of its kind ever recorded and scientists are currently unable to explain how a pulsar could emit such intense energy. This led researcher to determine the discovery challenges existing knowledge of pulsars — and requires a rethinking of how these natural accelerators work.
For the uninitiated, the interstellar light show was caused by a pulsar, a type of neutron star which consists of the rotating remnants of a dead star that has exploded into a supernova. These stars literally go out with a bang — one that is not known to be dangerous to humankind, according to NASA.
Despite measuring just 12 miles across, this celestial centrifuge can spin at an incredible rate, emitting beams of electromagnetic radiation that are visible on Earth at regular intervals like an intergalactic lighthouse.
The Vela pulsar radiated at a whopping 20 trillion electron volts — “the highest-energy gamma rays ever detected from a pulsar,” Djannati-Atai told per Live Science.
To put this into perspective, most pulsars emit under 10 billion EV, according to Space.com.
The only other pulsar known to have ever approached Vela’s energy level was the Crab Pulsar, situated over 6,000 light-years from Earth — and even that constellation maxed out at just 1 trillion electron volts.
In fact, this post-mortem display of voltage was an anomaly for the Vela, which was previously seen as a fairly normal pulsar.
“That is 200 times more energetic than all radiation ever detected before from this object,” according to study co-author Christo Venter from the North-West University in South Africa.
Needless to say, the “star bright” phenomenon had scientists scratching their heads as to how it produced such a high-energy emission.
“This result challenges our previous knowledge of pulsars and requires a rethinking of how these natural accelerators work,” Djannati-Atai.
Specifically, it threatens to upend the traditional theory, which states that the radiation is created by fast electrons created and emitted by the pulsar’s magnetosphere — a compilation of plasma and electromagnetic fields on the star’s periphery that rotate along with it.
However, the team posited Vela’s particles could be getting propelled out of this magnetic membrane, or that similar magnetic fields exist outside the typical acceleration areas.
Ultimately, the team hopes their discovery will shed light on what happens to a star after it dies.
“We know we have a first of a kind at hand, which shall help update our models of pulsar emission,” Djannati-Ataï exclaimed, adding that the findings could help deepen the understanding of other magnetized objects such as “black hole magnetospheres.”
In the future, the team plans to investigate whether Vela is producing even higher energy emissions, and to search the galaxy for similarly powerful gamma rays around other relatively close pulsars.
Along with being incredibly bright, pulsars are also the densest objects in the known universe, with one tablespoon weighing as much as Mount Everest.
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