In the past months, scientists made a pioneering discovery when they noticed a distant star that seemed to be rising from the dead, emitting signs of life, in the form of active flares. For them at first, it was just a discovery that had not been confirmed, but the star returning from the dead returned a few days ago to send… The same signals again, which confirms his attempt to return to life again. This exceptional event represents the first time such a phenomenon has been observed and raises interesting questions about the nature of stellar corpses.
Starting in 2022
The first emissions from the famous zombie star were initially discovered in September 2022 when scientists scanned data collected from a facility in California. Later in December, researchers observed an extremely bright explosion from the star, similar to an explosion, which quickly faded. Surprisingly, The flares continued for several months, and sparkled with the same intensity as the original explosion of the star, even after 100 days, according to the British “citylife” website.
The star returns to brightness
After months of observing the star, in recent days it sent new emissions indicating that it was trying to live again, and scientists now believe that these mysterious and extreme explosions that appeared after observing the star, arise from the remains of the star itself, after its death, as the star can leave behind a black hole. Or a neutron star, which continues to show activity, and the powerful flares seen are thought to emanate from these stellar corpses.
Regarding the zombie star phenomenon, Anna Wai Kew Ho, assistant professor of astronomy, said: “This resolves years of controversy about what drives this type of explosion and reveals an unusually direct way to study the activity of stellar corpses.” The unique properties of these flares also challenge traditional explanations. , leaving researchers in awe of this previously unseen phenomenon in astronomy.
To ensure the validity of their findings, the scientists carefully examined the data and requested the support of more than 70 co-authors and 15 telescopes. The star’s pulsating behavior was observed to be repeated at least 14 times over a period of 120 days, indicating that there may have been more events.
This research was documented in a recently published paper titled “Minute-long optical flares with supernova luminosity” in the popular scientific journal Nature, and despite this major progress, scientists are still striving to understand the basic processes that drive a dead star to continue behaving. In this unusual way.
What is a zombie star?
The term zombie star generally refers to a star that has died but continues to show signs of activity, such as emitting flares of light.
What causes the bright flares observed in zombie stars?
Scientists believe that these bright flares originate from the corpse of the star itself, which could be in the form of a black hole or a neutron star.
What are the next steps in studying zombie stars?
Scientists are continuing their research to understand the basic mechanisms that drive the unusual behavior of dead stars and their ability to emit such intense light flares.
