One of the fastest stars was dead. What happened to PSR J0002

One of the fastest stars was dead. What happened to PSR J0002

In the Universe you can find a huge variety of strange objects and events. One of these recorded gamma telescope Fermi. He managed to find one of the fastest stars, racing through the Milky Way galaxy.

This is a pulsar PSR J0002 + 6216, found in 2017. It really can be considered as a dead star, because pulsars are neutron stars with a magnetic field. In turn, neutron stars represent one of the results of star death.

Now PSR J0002 + 6216 is located on the territory of the constellation Cassiopeia and is 6,500 light-years distant from us. But the distance will gradually change, because before us is one of the fastest moving pulsars, located in the Milky Way galaxy.

One of the fastest stars was dead. What happened to PSR J0002

The speed of its rotation around its own axis is 8.7 times per second, and the speed indicator of movement through interstellar space is 1127 km / s. To make you understand, the pulsar has already covered a distance of 53 light years from its native formation in the Abell 85 nebula.

It was the speed of movement that caused the formation of a long tail in a pulsar, stretching for 13 light years! By the way, thanks to the tail length, we managed to track the starting point (home) of the pulsar.

One of the fastest stars was dead. What happened to PSR J0002

Abell 85 Nebula

It is believed that the speed is enough for one day PSR J0002 + 6216 to break out of the paws of the Milky Way's gravity and enter the intergalactic environment. But why is a dead star moving at such a tremendous speed?

Need to dig into the past. For about 10,000 years, a pulsar existed next to a massive star. When she gained a critical mass, she exploded as a supernova. Scientists believe that the explosion was powerful enough to push the pulsar and give it great speed to movement. That is why it is also called the “cannonball”.

Scientists are still trying to figure this out because supernovae explode frequently. But why precisely in a particular event did you manage to disperse a pulsar that rushes 5 times faster than other pulsars? Most likely, the supernova explosion was accompanied by an additional element. Perhaps the whole thing in the instability of a collapsing star. Answers will be obtained through additional research.

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