Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – NASA researchers are confused to witness an object in space that is 10 million times brighter than the Sun. So bright, the phenomenon is called violating the laws of physics.
NASA astronomers say an “X-ray light source” known as ULX shines with energy 10 million times greater than that of the Sun.
The energy ULX emits exceeds the Eddington limit, a law of physics that determines how bright an object is relative to its size.
An object breaking through the Eddington limit, according to the laws of physics, should explode. However, NASA stated that the ULX “exceeds the Eddington limit 100 to 500 times on a routine basis, and has puzzled scientists.”
Research on ULX published in The Astrophysical Journal, quoted from Science Alert, sourced from a special telescope belonging to NASA called the Nuclear Spectroscopic Array (NuSTAR). This telescope is designed to observe high-energy X-ray beams in space.
NuSTAR recorded a ULX, designated M82 X-2, proving that the object was indeed overly bright and not an optical illusion as some had suggested.
Previously, Astronomers suspected ULX was a black hole. M82 X-2 is not a black hole, but a neutron star, which is the remnant of a “dead” star’s core.
A neutron star, according to Live Science, is so dense that the gravity on its surface is 100 trillion times stronger than Earth’s. This intense gravity means that any object that is attracted to the surface of the neutron star explodes.
“Even if a marshmallow were to fall onto the surface of a neutron star, the impact energy would be equivalent to thousands of hydrogen bombs,” according to NASA.
NASA research suggests M82 Xs consumes 1.5 Earths worth of material each year, sucked in from a nearby star. If that much matter hits the surface of a neutron star, it will have enough energy to produce the light emitted by the ULX.
The research team thinks this phenomenon occurs because the magnetic field in a neutron star changes the shape of the atoms in the object so that they stay tightly packed together, even as the light gets brighter.
“This observation is to monitor the effects of the magnetic field which cannot be created on Earth with current technology. This is the beauty of astronomy, we can never test phenomena in the lab, we have to wait for the universe to reveal its secrets,” said Matteo Bachetti, astrophysicist of the Cagliari Astronomical Observatory, lead author on the research report on M82 Xs.
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