Neighbouring neutron star

[alokmohan]

sing NASA's Swift satellite, McGill University and Penn State University astronomers have identified an object that is possibly the closest neutron star to Earth.<br /><br />The object, located in the constellation Ursa Minor, is nicknamed 'Calvera,' after the villain in the movie "The Magnificent Seven." If confirmed, it would be only the eighth known isolated neutron star (a neutron star not associated with a supernova remnant, a binary companion, or radio pulsations). "The seven previously known isolated neutron stars are known collectively as 'The Magnificent Seven' within the community, and so the name Calvera is a bit of an inside joke on our part," says co-discoverer Derek Fox of Penn State. <br /><br />Robert Rutledge of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, originally called attention to the source. He compared a catalog of 18,000 X-ray sources from the German-American ROSAT satellite, which operated from 1990 to 1999, with catalogs of objects that appear in visible light, infrared light, and radio waves. He realized that the ROSAT source 1RXS J141256.0+792204 did not appear to have a counterpart at any other wavelength.<br /><br />The group aimed Swift at the object in August 2006. Swift's X-ray Telescope showed that the source was still there, and emitting about the same amount of X-ray energy as it had during the ROSAT era. The Swift observations enabled the group to pinpoint the object's position more accurately, and showed that it was not associated with any known object.<br /><br />"The Swift observation of this source is what got the show going," says Penn State undergraduate Andrew Shevchuk. "As soon as I saw the data, I knew Calvera was a great neutron-star candidate."<br /><br />The team next targeted Calvera with the 8.1-meter Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii. These observations, along with a short observation by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, showed that the object is not associated with any optical counterpart down to a very faint magnitude. Chandra

 

[3488]

Very interesting discovery.<br /><br />Thanks alokmohan.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[alokmohan]

Newtron stars are neglected lot.

 

[nexium]

Is there any chance this is the photon drive of a large space ship that is under power away from Earth? Sorry, I am a bit desparate for an idea.<br />Someone on another thread said class G stars were about 4% of all the stars. If that was true of class F stars, 13 billion years ago, then almost 90% of the F stars would have gone super nova and now be neutron stars, making 9% of all stars, neutron stars. I think A, B, and O stars become black holes, while M, K and G stars become white dwarfs. Perhaps some A stars become neutron stars instead of black holes = 10% neutron stars, a few of which may be in the voids between galaxies by now. Sorry about adding compact stars to main sequence stars, but it does make this post easier. Possibly 20 million neutron stars in our galaxy? Please comment, refute and/or embelish. Neil

 

[MeteorWayne]

Please do not send this thread to Phenomena...<br /><br />the answer is no.<br /><br />If you disagree, please start a new thread in Phenomena where it can be discussed.<br /><br />For this, you dragged up a thread that's been sleeping for 3 months?<br /><br />sheesh. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[nstars507]

wow!!! this discovery is amazing! i am excited to hear we will now have a target to study on. if you get any new infromation on this topic please let me know! i agree that neutron stars are neglected way to much and i think that needs to change lol. <br /><br />*~natalie~*

 

[nexium]

Thanks for the Info. So only class O stars become black holes and only B stars become neutron stars. All the rest become white dwarfs, so I suppose our galaxy has less than a billion neutron stars, considering half of them are just outside our galaxy and moving away. Yes? Neil