Space telescope captures rare view of a star engulfing another star (PHOTOS)
Written by Cooper Rusconi on July 3, 2011 – 5:44 pmAccording to ESA scientists, the flare took place on a neutron star, which is formed when a giant star collapse during supernova explosion.
About 10 km in diameter, a neutron star is so dense that it generates a strong gravitational field intense enough to pull a clump of matter emitted by giant stars.
The clump of matter, which the neutron star tried to ingest in the outburst, came from a massive blue supergiant companion star, and was much larger than the neutron star, about 16 million km across, or about 100 billion times the volume of the Moon, researchers said.
The flare lasted four hours and the X-rays came from the gas in the clump as it was heated to millions of degrees while being pulled into the neutron stars intense gravity field, they said, adding that the clump was so big that not much of it hit the neutron star.
Scientists estimate that an X-ray flare of this magnitude can be expected a few times a year and they were extremely lucky to get the observations, which will probably help astronomers understand the behavior of the blue supergiant and the way it emits matter into space.
A clump of matter from a massive blue supergiant star (Left) is being pulled by an intense gravitational field of a neutron star (Right). PHOTO: ESA/AOES Medialab An artist’s impression of XMM-Newton. Credits: ESA-C. Carreau
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