Saturday, August 6, 2022

3643 - MAGNETARS - how neutron stars are magnetic?

  -  3643  -   MAGNETARS   -   how neutron stars are magnetic?  -  The Insight-HXMT x-ray telescope was used to make a direct measurement of the strongest magnetic field in the known universe. The magnetic field belongs to a “magnetar” currently in the process of cannibalizing an orbiting companion.


---------------------  3642  -   MAGNETARS   -   how neutron stars are magnetic?

-  Magnetars are a special kind of neutron star that powers up the strongest known magnetic fields.

-

-   While neutron stars are made of almost entirely neutrons, they do contain small populations of protons and electrons. When neutron stars are born in supernova explosions of a massive star, those charged particles can briefly create a strong magnetic field. In normal neutron stars, the magnetic field quickly melts away from all the complex physics happening in the explosion.

-

-   For some neutron stars, the magnetic field locks itself in before that happens. When the neutron star finally reveals itself, it retains this impressive magnetic strength, and a magnetar is born.

-

-  But most of the time astronomers have to make due with indirect measurements of magnetar magnetic field strengths.    Insight-HXMT observatory was used to study J0243.6+6124, an ultraliminous pulsar in the Milky Way.

-

-   This pulsar has an orbiting companion that wandered too close. The pulsar’s extreme gravity is currently in the process of tearing apart the companion, forcing its material into a thin accretion disk around the pulsar.

-

-  Occasionally the gas in the accretion disk flares, producing a flash of incredibly bright x-rays. In the spectrum of those x-rays the astronomers found an absorption line caused by electrons knocking away x-rays. 

-

-  Those electrons can only get that kind of energy if they’re powered by a magnetic field, and so through that observation the astronomers were able to directly measure the magnetic field strengths.

-

-  They estimated a field strength of 1.6 billion tesla, which is about a million billion times stronger than the Earth’s magnetic field.

-

August 5, 2022        MAGNETARS   -   how neutron stars are magnetic?        3643                                                                                                                                        

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----  Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ---

---   Some reviews are at:  --------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----  

--  email feedback, corrections, request for copies or Index of all reviews 

---  to:  ------    jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ------  “Jim Detrick”  -----------

--------------------- ---  Saturday, August 6, 2022  ---------------------------






No comments:

Post a Comment