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Related: About this forumHas the Weirdest Star in the Universe Been Found?
Has the Weirdest Star in the Universe Been Found?
Jan 7, 2014 04:01 PM ET // by Ian O'Neill
Leave it to astrophysicists to think up some strange stars, many of which remain rooted firmly in theory or even bordering on science fiction. But astronomers have announced the discovery of a Thorne-Żytkow object, potentially putting a weird hybrid star on the stellar map as a very real phenomenon.
In 1975, astrophysicists Kip Thorne, of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, Calif., and Anna Żytkow, of the University of Cambridge, UK, published a theoretical paper in the Astrophysical Journal describing a rare, dying star with a surprise in its core. According to Thorne and Żytkow, it is possible for a red supergiant star to collide with a superdense neutron star, the remnant of a supernova, swallowing it. A red supergiant can merge with a binary partner neutron star, or that both occupied a dense globular cluster.
Once the neutron star is eaten, it settles in the core of the supergiant, interrupting normal fusion processes inside the stars guts. This, according to the theorists, should create a very specific chemical signature in the host stars chemical make up. Whats more, there should be a few dozen Thorne-Żytkow object specimens in our galaxy.
Over the past 40 years, according to Nature News, astronomers have observed a handful of Thorne-Żytkow object candidates, but none have been confirmed.
More:
http://news.discovery.com/space/astronomy/has-the-weirdest-star-in-the-universe-been-discovered-140107.htm#mkcpgn=rssnws1
MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)Michael Jackson's unfortunate passing. Nick Cage? Tom Cruise? Charlie Sheen?
Thanks to science, we now have certainty.
longship
(40,416 posts)One never knows the hand that Mother Nature will deal.
That's what keeps scientists up late at night.
Locut0s
(6,154 posts)lastlib
(23,241 posts)pretty cool, though...