Neutron Star Spotted Shooting A Jet Like A Garden Sprinkler For First Time

12 hours ago

The jet of this extreme object is changing direction creating an S-shape in the sky.

Author

DR. ALFREDO CARPINETI
Senior Staff Writer & Space Correspondent

Edited
by
Katy Evans

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https://tinyurl.com/yx3hvkvr

One of the most iconic views of Circinus X-1. New research has revealed intriguing new details about this system.

Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison/S. Heinz, et al.; Optical: DSS

Astronomers have spotted a neutron star whose jet is changing direction for the first time. Likened to a garden sprinkler, the jet is coming from the phenomenal object Circinus X-1, one of the brightest and best-studied objects in the X-ray sky. However, it turns out that there is a lot more to discover about this object.

Circinus X-1 is a binary system. It comprises a neutron star, the extremely dense remains of a star going supernova, orbited by a companion star from which it steals material. Some of that material is pushed away from the system in the form of powerful jets. These jets are commonly seen around black holes but Circinus X-1 was the first neutron star seen to have jets, back in 2007. Curiously, now it's been observed that the jet is not going straight.

Circinus X-1 is such a well-studied source in our field, but it still remains such a puzzle even after 50 years of people looking at it.

Fraser Cowie

The interaction between the rotating star and the disk of material creates a precession. Just like a spinning top slowing down, the direction in the rotation of the neutron star and its jet point is changing. This motion makes the jet look like a garden sprinkler or even a gymnast's ribbon.

"[The research] is really exciting because Circinus X-1 is such a well-studied source in our field, but it still remains such a puzzle even after 50 years of people looking at it," Fraser Cowie, from the University of Oxford who presented the new research, told IFLScience. "Now we have managed, with our new observations, to shed a bit more light on why it is so puzzling and see even more features. We are starting to link the various puzzling things together in a more unified picture."

More:
https://www.iflscience.com/neutron-star-spotted-shooting-a-jet-like-a-garden-sprinkler-for-first-time-75107