Bright Beyond Belief: How Ultra-Luminous X-Ray Sources Surpass Theoretical Limits — NASA's Nuclear Spectroscop |
In this illustration of an ultra-luminous X-ray source, two rivers of hot gas are pulled onto the surface of a neutron star. Strong magnetic fields, shown in green, may change the interaction of matter and light near neutron stars’ surface, increasing how bright they can become.
Illustration of the NuSTAR spacecraft, which has a 30-foot mast that separates the optics modules from the detectors in the focal plane . This separation is necessary for the method used to detect X-rays. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Luckily, the universe is a vast place, so there are plenty of ULXs to look at to determine whether magnetic fields are the cause, but first, it’s essential to understand what causes the limit in the first place.Anyone familiar with the concept of solar sailing understands that photons can exert pressure when they run into an object. It might not be much pressure, but it is some, at least.
But the new study offers up a different explanation. It used data from NuSTAR on an object originally found to be ain 2014. The object, M82 X-2, thereby disproved a previous theory that all ULXs had to be black holes. Neutron stars are slightly less massive than black holes but still have an immense gravitational pull that vaporizes any particles in their vicinity. Those vaporized particles are what create the X-ray energy that is detectable by NuSTAR.
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