The Neutron Star That Defies Speed Limits
A newly discovered neutron star, found by an international team using the ASKAP radio telescope, spins every 54 minutes, making it the slowest of its kind.
This discovery could alter scientific theories about neutron stars and white dwarfs, emphasizing the need for more research to understand their emission properties and evolutionary paths.
Astronomers have detected what they believe to be a neutron star spinning at an unprecedentedly slow rate — slower than any of the more than 3,000 radio-emitting neutron stars measured to date.
Neutron stars — the ultra-dense remains of a dead star — typically rotate at mind-bendingly fast speeds, taking just seconds or even a fraction of a second to fully spin on their axis.
However, the neutron star, newly discovered by an international team of astronomers, defies this rule, emitting radio signals on a comparatively leisurely interval of 54 minutes.
The team was led by Dr. Manisha Caleb at the University of Sydney and Dr. Emil Lenc at CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency and includes scientists at The University of Manchester and the University of Oxford.
The results, published recently in the journal Nature Astronomy, offer new insights into the complex life cycles of stellar objects.
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