This vampire star is shooting out 'garden sprinkler' like jets in cosmos. Here's why
Image of a neutron star. (Courtesy: European Space Agency)
Astronomers have for the first time spotted a neutron star releasing a weird S-shaped jet, which looks like a "garden sprinkler".
As per scientists, the S-shaped structure is created when the jet's direction changes because of the wobbling of the disk of hot gas near the star in a process known as precession.
However, till now this process has been observed withblack holes and never withneutron stars.
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The neutron star is present in thebinary systemCircinus X-1 which is more than 30,000 light-years from Earth.
Here's why the S-shaped jet is getting released from star
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The birth of this star took place when a star which was nearly eight times the size of the sun died in asupernova explosion.
The light from this supernova explosion is likely to have reached Earth around 5,000 years ago. The neutron star is said to have been devouring its companion star and behaving like acosmic vampire which is causing an eruption of high-energy jets from it.
These jets take the shape of S because the vampire dead star is wobbling or "precessing" similar to a spinning top when it feeds.
The team of scientists who have carried out the research believe that this is a first-of-its-kind observation which can help them better understand theextreme physics among neutron stars.
"This image is the first time we have seen strong evidence for a precessing jet from a confirmedneutron star," said team leader Fraser Cowie, a researcher at Oxford, in a statement.
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"This evidence comes from both the symmetric S shape of the radio-emitting plasma in the jets and from the fast, wide shockwave, which can only be produced by a jet changing direction," he added.
"This will give valuable information about the extreme physics behind the launching of the jet, a phenomenon which is still not well understood," Cowie said.
The astronomers at the University of Oxford spotted the S-shaped jet using the MeerKAT radio telescope located in South Africa.
(With inputs from agencies)