Decades-long aspiration culminated: Cosmic winds surrounding neutron star offer insights into super massive black holes
In a groundbreaking discovery, a team of Japanese and international astrophysicists, using the X-ray telescope XRISM, have observed powerful winds blowing from a neutron star. This study, published in the prestigious journal Nature on September 17, could reshape our understanding of how radiation and matter interact around extreme accreting objects and influence evolving galaxies.
The object of interest was accretion disk GX13+1, located between 23,000 and 26,000 light-years from Earth in the galactic bulge of the Milky Way. The observing power of XRISM's Resolve instrument allowed the team to measure the energy of X-ray light emitted from GX13+1 and gather details about its system that had never been seen before.
Initially, the team discovered that GX13+1 had brightened so much before the observations that they theorized it may have reached or even exceeded the Eddington limit. This limit is a theoretical limit concerning how much matter can be accreted to a compact body like a neutron star or black hole. When the Eddington limit is reached, the outward pressure of the emitted energy is so great that the supply of material to the compact celestial body is cut off, and the surrounding material is pushed away as cosmic winds.
However, the wind flowing from GX13+1 was traveling at a speed of 620,000 mph, significantly slower than expected for winds at the Eddington limit. Moreover, it was denser and flowed smoothly, unlike clumpy winds observed near supermassive black holes at the Eddington limit.
The team theorizes that temperature variations between accretion disks around neutron stars and supermassive black holes may be responsible for the differences in wind characteristics. Accretion disks around supermassive black holes are larger and brighter, causing their emitted light to be in the ultraviolet region, while disks around neutron stars emit X-rays. This difference could explain the observed discrepancies in wind behaviour.
The findings could be a 'game changer' for physics, as they could help guide future telescopes such as NewAthena, an ESA mission set to launch in 2037 and designed to be the largest X-ray observatory ever built. The research group's findings may also impact observations made by other X-ray telescopes such as NASA's Chandra and ESA's XMM-Newton.
ESA Research Fellow Camille Diez stated that the research allows for far greater detail in investigating objects like GX13+1, setting the stage for the next-generation, high-resolution X-ray telescope such as NewAthena. The discovery could reveal more about the physics surrounding the inflow of matter from accretion disks to the surfaces of both neutron stars and supermassive black holes, potentially influencing our understanding of the evolution of galaxies.
The team's research could also shed light on the interaction between radiation and matter around extreme accreting objects, which could have significant implications for various fields of astrophysics. As we continue to explore the universe, discoveries such as this one serve as testament to the endless wonders that await us in the cosmos.
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