Neutron Stars at High Speed
Sunday August 13, 2006
Over the past several years, astronomers have identified a number of neutron stars which move at rapid speeds. Neutron stars are roughly the size of a large city and are so dense that a teaspoonful of the material would weigh a billion tons, the remnants of the supernova explosions of some types of stars. The question is how these stars can gain such a rapid acceleration.
Theoretical models are being considered, but most will have trouble explaining the 1,500 kilometer per second speed which has recently been observed ... the models indicate that speeds in excess of 1,000 kilometers per second should rarely, if ever, be observed. (The previous record-holder was 1,100 kilometers per second.)
The discovery of neutron stars travelling at this speed indicates that revisions are needed in the theoretical models of how they gain such momentum, perhaps opening the doorway to new insights into stellar evolution and supernova.
Comments
There are stars leaving the Milky Way at high speed. The current idea is that a binary star system went near a supermassive black hole. One star is caught, and the other speeds away. Seems like that could happen in a binary where one member is a neutron star.
I’ve been obsering the stars for the past few weeks, and i’ve notice moving stars…I was wondering whether these sight could be those made by neutron stars. The other interesting thing about this is that it does not move in just a straight path, but rather making all sorts of turns, before dissapearing into the night sky…Is there any explanation about this, and if so, please email back.
Long – My instinct is that you have been observing an airplane or something rather than a star. I can think of no mechanism to explain such rapid changes in the path of a star … nor even the rapid motion of a visible star. Plus, neutron stars are rarely (if ever) visible to the naked eye.
Stephen – I haven’t heard of this, although I don’t particularly understand why one star being sucked into a black hole’s gravity would push the other star away at an accelerated rate.
I think the speed of the star is affected by the energy released by the supernova explosion. There is enough evidence to show that maybe a couple of years from now the record speed for neutron stars might even exceed 1,500km/sec. Continuous studies and observations on these cosmic entities will surely provide more light on these mysterious objects.