An idiosyncratic sight at the Milky Way’s center sent shivers down the scientist’s spine. The observations by the NASA scientists which paved way to the discovery of a rare celestial entity that may help them test predictions of Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
At the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in National Harbor, MD, this week the scientists showcases their intensive research featuring the images of Swift, explaining that how these images would craft way in finding the physical nature of X-ray flares and paved way in their discovery of a rare subclass of neutron star.
Till date , Swift’s XRT has perceived six bright flares during which the black hole’s X-ray emission was as much as 150 times brighter for a couple of hours. It enabled the team to estimate that similar flares occur every five to 10 days. Scientists will decipher the differences between the outbursts to decipher their physical nature.
Scientists assumed in April that there was a sign when Swift detected a strong high energy burst and a rise in the X-ray brightness of the Sgr A* region. They were happy and elated to find out that the activity came from a different source near the black hole: a rare subclass of neutron star.
A neutron star is basically the crushed core of a star destroyed by a supernova explosion, packing the equivalent mass of a half-million Earths into a sphere no wider than Washington. The neutron star, named SGR J1745-29, is a Magnetar. Till date, Only 26 magnetars have been identified to date. Goddard manages Swift and takes charge of the spacecraft in amalgamation with Pennsylvania State University, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and Orbital Sciences Corp. in Dulles, VA. International amalgamators are located in the United Kingdom and Italy. The mission also has contributions from Germany and Japan.
Source: (nasa.gov)
