The international group of astronomers has made a groundbreaking discovery in the Milky Way using the Meeerkat radio telescope. They have found an unknown object that surpasses the mass of the most severe neutron stars but is lighter than the lightest black holes. The findings have been published in the journal science.
The object, located approximately 40,000 light years away in the densely populated stellar accumulation of NGC 1851, is orbiting a rapidly rotating millisecond pulsar. This discovery could potentially be the first instance of a Radiopulsar-Black Hole system, opening up new opportunities for testing Einstein’s general theory of relativity and studying black holes.
Professor Ben Stappers, an astrophysics professor from the University of Manchester and the project manager in the UK, expressed excitement over the nature of the satellite. The pulsar-black hole system will be a significant target for testing gravity theories, while the heavy neutron star will provide valuable insights into nuclear physics with extremely high densities.
Astronomers posit that the mass of the neutron star must exceed the mass of the Sun by 2.2 times. The lightest black holes formed by these stars are thought to be five times more massive than the Sun, resulting in a “gap of black holes.” The nature of compact objects within this gap has remained unknown until now.
This discovery was made during observations of the NGC 1851 star cluster, located in the constellation Columba. The stars in this globular cluster are densely packed, allowing for interactions and even collisions in extreme cases. Scientists speculate that the collision of two neutron stars could have led to the formation of this massive object.
Scientists utilized a technique called “Pulsar timing” to accurately measure the orbital movement of the pulsar. Evan Barr, a leading researcher from the Max Planck Institute of Radio Astronomy, compared this to using an almost perfect watch to measure the orbit around a star 40,000 light years away with microsecond precision.
Co-author of the study, Arunum Dutta, emphasizes that uncovering the true nature of the satellite will be a pivotal moment in understanding neutron stars, black holes, and other objects that may be hidden within the gap of black holes.