Astronomers make groundbreaking discovery of unknown object in our galaxy
The radio telescope MeerKAT has made a significant discovery, identifying an unknown object in our galaxy, the Milky Way. This mystery object is heavier than neutron stars but lighter than black holes, presenting a new challenge for astronomy.
A team of astronomers from various institutions, including the University of Manchester and the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, completed the scientific discovery of an object orbiting around a rapidly spinning millisecond pulsar located in a dense star cluster known as a globular cluster. This object, presented in Science, was detected while observing the star cluster NGC 1851 located in the southern constellation of Columba.
Using the clock-like ticks of the millisecond pulsar, the astronomers were able to determine that the object’s mass is situated in the mass range of a black hole. This finding could potentially be the first discovery of a radiopulsar-black hole binary, providing new opportunities for testing Einstein’s general relativity and studying black holes.
Astronomers believe that a collision between two neutron stars may have created the massive object that now orbits the radio pulsar. The team was able to detect weak pulses from one of the stars, identifying it as a radio pulsar that rotates more than 170 times per second.
The discovery of this object sheds light on the mysterious “Sun mass gap,” which refers to the larger, lighter black holes created by these stars. The nature of the objects in this mass gap has remained unknown, but the recent discovery may provide valuable insights.
This groundbreaking discovery has the potential to advance our understanding of unknown objects in the universe, representing a significant achievement in the field of astronomy.