New research published in The Astrophysical Journal has revealed that certain celestial objects known as "ultraluminous X-ray sources" (ULXs) are defying the laws of physics by emitting an astonishing amount of energy, exceeding the Eddington limit by 100 to 500 times.
The Eddington limit is a fundamental physical law that dictates the maximum brightness an object of a given size can have without breaking apart.
ULXs are objects in space that emit about 10
million times more energy than the sun, and until now, scientists had thought
that they could be black holes. However, recent observations from NASA's
Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) have shown that one particular
ULX, named M82 X-2, is actually a neutron star, which is the dense core of a
dead star. Neutron stars are incredibly dense, with a surface gravity about 100
trillion times stronger than that of Earth.
What makes M82 X-2 particularly baffling is
that it consumes material from a neighboring star at a rate equivalent to 1.5
times the mass of Earth every year, resulting in an extreme brightness that
surpasses the Eddington limit. This challenges the current understanding of how
such objects behave, as they were previously believed to follow the laws of
physics.
The research team suggests that the intense
magnetic field of the neutron star may be causing the atoms in its vicinity to
change shape, allowing the star to maintain its integrity even as it becomes
brighter and brighter. This phenomenon cannot be replicated on Earth with current
technology, making it a unique and intriguing discovery.
Lead study author Matteo Bachetti, an astrophysicist at the Cagliari Astronomical Observatory in Italy, described the findings as the "beauty of astronomy" as it reveals the mysteries of the universe that cannot be replicated in experiments. Further research is needed to fully understand the mechanisms behind M82 X-2's defiance of the Eddington limit and its extraordinary energy output.
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