Wednesday, April 27, 2005
High Resolution
Astronomers at the European Space Agency have spotted features as small as a football field on stars as far as 2,000 light years, something that's never been done.
Using the XMM-Newton X-ray telescope, the scientists have observed thousands of burnings flecks spread over stellar surfaces and ranging from 300 to 3,000 feet in diameter on three neutron stars 500, 800, and 2000 light years away from us.
ESA said that the stellar pimples are most probably linked to magnetic field phenomena similar to earthly Polar lights. "This is where the star's magnetic field funnels charged particles back towards the surface, in a way somehow similar to the Northern light, or aurorae, seen at the poles of planets which have magnetic fields, such as Earth, Jupiter and Saturn," the scientists said.
Neutron stars are the fast-spinning, superdense cores that remain after supernova explosions. They are made almost entirely of neutrons and about as massive as the Sun. But their circumference is thousands times smaller, just 30 to 600 miles. Say, a Lego cube made of neutron star material with sides 1 centimeter long (2/5ths of an inch)would weigh as much as 340-meter cube of steel. Working like massive dynamos, they generate extreme magnetic fields.
Using the XMM-Newton X-ray telescope, the scientists have observed thousands of burnings flecks spread over stellar surfaces and ranging from 300 to 3,000 feet in diameter on three neutron stars 500, 800, and 2000 light years away from us.
ESA said that the stellar pimples are most probably linked to magnetic field phenomena similar to earthly Polar lights. "This is where the star's magnetic field funnels charged particles back towards the surface, in a way somehow similar to the Northern light, or aurorae, seen at the poles of planets which have magnetic fields, such as Earth, Jupiter and Saturn," the scientists said.
Neutron stars are the fast-spinning, superdense cores that remain after supernova explosions. They are made almost entirely of neutrons and about as massive as the Sun. But their circumference is thousands times smaller, just 30 to 600 miles. Say, a Lego cube made of neutron star material with sides 1 centimeter long (2/5ths of an inch)would weigh as much as 340-meter cube of steel. Working like massive dynamos, they generate extreme magnetic fields.
