A giant cosmic 'fart' is making a wobbling zombie star repeatedly flash us, 'groundbreaking' observations reveal
A very strange binary star system keeps flashing Earth with X-ray flares. Scientists now understand why.
A massive cosmic phenomenon is causing a peculiar zombie star to repeatedly brighten, emitting intense X-ray flashes toward Earth, according to groundbreaking new observations. The unusual binary star system, located about 13,000 light-years away, consists of a blue hypergiant star named Wray 977 and a neutron star called GX 301-2.
The neutron star, a pulsar with an extremely powerful magnetic field, spins rapidly, constantly emitting a wobbling beam of electromagnetic radiation, including X-rays, that occasionally aligns with Earth to create a flash of light. However, unlike most pulsars, GX 301-2 also experiences frequent X-ray flares, making it much brighter at regular intervals, which puzzled researchers.
New findings published in Science Advances reveal that the neutron star flares up whenever it passes through a giant plume of stellar wind plasma ejected by its blue hypergiant companion. This is the first time such an interaction between stellar material and a neutron star has been detected, opening up new possibilities for studying similar systems in the future.
XRISM, a space telescope jointly operated by NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, captured detailed spectra of GX 301-2 and Wray 977's plasma plume, providing crucial evidence that the flares occur when the neutron star reaches the stellar wind plume. Researchers now plan to use XRISM to study future flaring events, aiming to better understand the relationship between GX 301-2 and Wray 977's windy plume.
Written by urgent.news from Live Science's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
