A strange "ultraluminous X-ray source" defies the Eddington limit by
shining millions of times brighter than the sun, according to a recent
research.
There is something in space that is defying the laws of physics.
These transgressors are known as ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs), and
they emit energy around 10 million times greater than that of the sun. This
energy exceeds the Eddington limit, a physical restriction on how brilliant
an object of a particular size may be. Scientists anticipate that anything
that exceeds the Eddington limit will explode into fragments. But, according
to a
NASA statement, ULXs "regularly exceed this limit by 100 to 500 times, leaving scientists
perplexed."
New observations from NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array
(NuSTAR), which observes the cosmos in high-energy X-rays, have been
published in
The Astrophysical Journal and have proven that one specific ULX, named M82 X-2, is
unquestionably too bright. This new research dispels earlier notions that
indicated the extraordinary brightness may be an optical illusion and
instead demonstrates that the ULX is somehow violating the Eddington
limit.
ULXs were formerly thought to be black holes, however M82 X-2 is really a
neutron star. The leftover, lifeless cores of stars like the sun are known
as neutron stars. Because neutron stars are so dense, their surface has a
gravitational pull that is around 100 trillion times greater than that of
the Earth. Because of the dead star's strong gravity, anything that is
brought onto its surface will explode.
According to
NASA, "a marshmallow dropped on a neutron star's surface would strike it with
the energy of a thousand hydrogen bombs."
According to a recent research, M82 X-2 steals material from a nearby star
every year equivalent to around 1.5 Earths. The extreme brightness the
researchers saw is the result of this much stuff colliding with the neutron
star's surface.
The study team believes that this is proof that M82 X-2 must be doing
something unusual to be able to defy the laws of physics and go beyond the
Eddington limit. Their current hypothesis holds that the neutron star's
strong magnetic field modifies the atoms' shapes, allowing the star to
remain cohesive even as it becomes brighter and brighter.
According to main research author
Matteo Bachetti, an astrophysicist at the Italian observatory in Cagliari, "these
observations let us see the effects of these incredibly strong magnetic
fields that we could never reproduce on Earth with current technology." This
is the beauty of astronomy: we have to wait for the cosmos to reveal its
mysteries; we can't actually put up tests to acquire speedy answers.
