ESA’s gamma-ray space telescope Integralhas played a decisive role in capturing jets of matter being...
ESA's gamma-ray space telescope Integral has played a decisive role in capturing jets of matter being expelled into space at one-third the speed of light.
The material and energy were liberated when huge explosions occurred on the surface of a neutron star.
Part of this accreted matter is then somehow ejected out into jets that race away along the neutron star's rotation axis, and the rest of the matter spirals down onto the neutron star.
The team reasoned that this sudden liberation of matter and energy from the surface of the neutron star would affect the jet, and that they could measure this disturbance as it propagated outwards.
Artistic animation of how nuclear explosions on a neutron star trigger its jets.
This is a crucial measurement because once enough accreting neutron stars have been studied, the jet speed can reveal the dominant launching mechanism and show whether the jet is powered by magnetic fields anchored in the accreting material, or in the star itself.
Answering them will impact studies beyond neutron stars because jets are created by many astronomical objects.
From newly formed stars to supermassive black holes in the centres of galaxies, jets can also be produced by cataclysmic events such as supernova explosions and gamma-ray bursts.
"This result is opening a completely new window to understanding how astrophysical jets are powered up, in neutron stars and also in other jet-producing astronomical objects," says Erik.
'Thermonuclear explosions on neutron stars reveal the speed and feeding of their jets' is published in Nature.