{"id":793738,"date":"2025-02-19T16:57:08","date_gmt":"2025-02-19T21:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=793738"},"modified":"2025-02-19T16:57:08","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T21:57:08","slug":"did-astronomers-just-witness-the-formation-of-a-strange-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=793738","title":{"rendered":"Did Astronomers Just Witness the Formation of a &#8220;Strange Star&#8221;?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>There are plenty of types of stars out there, but one stands out for being just a little weirder than the others. You might even say it\u2019s strange. According to a paper from researchers at Guangxi University in China, the birth of one might have recently been observed for the very first time.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-171006\"\/><\/p>\n<p>A strange star is a (so far theoretical) compact star that is so dense it literally breaks down regular parts of atoms (like neutrons) into their constituent quarks. Moreover, even those quarks (the up and down that comprise a neutron) get compressed into an even rarer type of quark called a strange quark \u2013 hence the name strange star.<\/p>\n<p>Technically, the \u201cstrange\u201d matter that a strange star would be composed of is a combination of up, down, and strange quarks. But, at least in theory, this mix of sub-hadronic particles could even be more stable than a traditional neutron star, which is similar to a strange star but doesn\u2019t have enough gravity to break down the neutrons.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"SLS Hurricanes \/\/ James Webb Fixed \/\/ Strange Quark Star (feat. @whatdamath)\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KyRvKxu8Mf0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Fraser discusses strange stars.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Strange stars, though they exist in theory, are exceedingly rare. No one has ever proven that one exists. But Xiao Tian and his co-authors think they might have found evidence of one.<\/p>\n<p>Their paper describes a recent gamma-ray burst known as GRB 240529A that they think holds the clues to finding a strange star. Gamma-ray bursts, the gigantic implosions that sometimes result from creating a black hole, could also have other causes \u2013 or \u201ccentral engines,\u201d as they are called in the literature. One such central engine is the creation of a magnetar.<\/p>\n<p>Magnetars are another type of neutron star that is even more extreme. Their magnetic fields could be up to 1,000 times that of a typical neutron star, giving them the largest magnetic fields in the known universe. In them, electrons and protons are forced together to create neutrons, hence the name neutron star.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"What are Magnetars? The Most Magnetic Objects in the Universe\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jwPZus7fT74?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Fraser discusses magnetars, the type of star that would theoretically collapse into a strange star.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>However, they could also collapse upon themselves, as a part of cosmological theory allows for a magnetar to collapse into an even more dense form, which would be something akin to a strange star with the requisite mix of quarks. Doing so would undoubtedly produce a gamma-ray burst, which Dr. Tian and his co-authors believe they found in GRB 240529A.<\/p>\n<p>The details of that particular GRB hold the clues. There were three distinct \u201cemission episodes\u201d that represented different phases of the collapse to a magnetar, then to a strange star, and then the spin-down of the strange star. A different spectrum of gamma rays represents each as part of the burst, and each episode was separated by a few hundred seconds of relative calm, which seems like an exceedingly short time considering how massive the objects were collapsing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, in the X-ray spectrum, another part of the light curve could be described as containing \u201cplateaus.\u201d According to the authors, each of these plateaus could represent a stage in the birth of the strange star, with the first representing its cooling and the second representing its \u201cpin down\u201d phase.<\/p>\n<p>According to their calculations, the observed data best matches the theoretical values that would be seen if GRB represented the birth of a strange star. So it seems likely that, for the first time, astronomers have garnered some evidence to support a theory that was initially developed in the 1980s. But, as always, more testing is needed, and other researchers should confirm the authors\u2019 calculations. But if they do, it would be a significant leap forward in experimental astrophysics \u2013 and may herald many more strange findings to come.<\/p>\n<p>Learn More:<br \/>Tian et al \u2013 Signature of strange star as the central engine of GRB 240529A<br \/>UT \u2013 It Takes Very Special Conditions to Create This Bizarre Stellar Spectacle<br \/>UT \u2013 SLS Hurricanes, James Webb Fixed, Strange Quark Star<br \/>UT \u2013 The Mysterious Case of the Resurrected Star<\/p>\n<p>Lead Image:<br \/>Illustration of the interior of a neutron star and a strange quark star<br \/>Credit \u2013 NASA\/SAO\/CXC\/J.Drake et al.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-block sd-like jetpack-likes-widget-wrapper jetpack-likes-widget-unloaded\" id=\"like-post-wrapper-24000880-171006-67b651cb70c1c\" data-src=\"https:\/\/widgets.wp.com\/likes\/?ver=14.0#blog_id=24000880&amp;post_id=171006&amp;origin=www.universetoday.com&amp;obj_id=24000880-171006-67b651cb70c1c&amp;n=1\" data-name=\"like-post-frame-24000880-171006-67b651cb70c1c\" data-title=\"Like or Reblog\">\n<h3 class=\"sd-title\">Like this:<\/h3>\n<p><span class=\"button\"><span>Like<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"loading\">Loading&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"sd-text-color\"\/><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.universetoday.com\/171006\/did-astronomers-just-witness-the-formation-of-a-strange-star\/?rand=772204\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are plenty of types of stars out there, but one stands out for being just a little weirder than the others. You might even say it\u2019s strange. According to&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":793739,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-793738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genaero"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=793738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/793739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=793738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=793738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=793738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}