Neutron stars are dense remnants of large stars. They are the collapsed nuclei of stars formed during the explosion of a supernova.
While we generally know how they form, we are still learning how they evolve, especially when they are young.
But that is beginning to change thanks to large sky prospects, which have allowed astronomers to observe a neutron star that could be just over a decade old.
The neutron star in question is known as VT 1137-0337. It is in a dwarf galaxy about 400 million light-years away and was first seen in 2018 as part of the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS). VLASS is a seven-year project to create a radio map of the sky. When you’re done, you’ll have mapped out about 80 percent of the sky along three different routes.
After first capturing an image of VT 1137-0337 in 2018, it saw the neutron star again in 2019, 2020 and 2022. So we know it’s not just a transient radio of some kind.
According to observations, the object is probably a pulsar wind nebula. As the neutron star rotates, its magnetic field and energy rays pass through the surrounding nebula, causing the nebula’s gas to ionize and emit radio light.
What is interesting about VT 1137-0337 is that it was not seen in a previous VLA sky survey known as Weak Images of the Radius Sky at Twenty Centimeters (FIRST), done in 1998. Thus, between 1998 and 2018 , the neutron star appeared.
(Dong and Hallinan, NRAO / AUI / NSF)
On top: VLA images of the location of VT 1137-0337 in 1998, on the left, and in 2018, on the right. The object became visible to the VLA sometime between these two dates.
At first glance, this would make VT 1137-0337 less than twenty years old, but it could be a little older. It is possible that the neutron star existed in 1998, but the surrounding nebula was still dense enough to prevent radio light from reaching us.
But given the speed at which supernova remnants are expanding, the fog should have cleared in 60 to 80 years, meaning even the oldest estimates make it decades, not centuries. or millennia. VT 1137-0337 is a very young neutron star, and quite possibly as young as 14 years old.
The radio energy of VT 1137-0337 is 10,000 times more powerful than that of the crab nebula, which was created by a supernova in 1054 CE. This means that it has a much more powerful magnetic field. So powerful that the VT 1137-0337 could be in the process of becoming a magnet. Magnetars are highly magnetic neutron stars that are probably the cause of fast radio bursts (FRBs).
Therefore, this might be the first observation of the birth of a magnet, but it will not be the last. As astronomers conduct future surveys of the sky, they will surely discover even more births of these powerful objects.
Note: Brian Koberlein works as a scientific writer for NRAO, which operates the VLA and VLASS, but did not participate in the research presented here.
This article was originally published by Universe Today. Read the original article.