One of the youngest known stars is a remnant of a massive star that exploded as a supernova. Images from the National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large array show a bright radio emission from behind a dense shell of debris from a supernova.
The object is 395 million light years away from Earth. It was first seen in a picture in January of last year. In 1998, the VLA's first survey made an image of the same region. In the following years, it appeared in later observations.
A Caltech graduate who will work at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory later this year is most likely to see a pulsar wind nebula. A wind nebula is created when the magnetic field of a spinning neutron star causes charged particles to speed up.
"Based on its characteristics, this is a very young pulsar, but no older than 60 to 80 years old," said Hallinan.
The scientists presented their findings at the meeting.
About 80 percent of the sky is visible from the VLA, and an object was discovered in data from a project. Over the course of seven years, VLASS has conducted three complete scans of the sky with one of the objectives being to find Transient objects. VT was found in the first scans of the year.
The data from the earlier VLA sky survey called First showed that there were 20 particularly Luminous Transient objects associated with known galaxies.
The characteristics of its radio emission made it stand out. About 100 million times the mass of the Sun is the size of the galaxy.
The astronomer considered several possible explanations, including a star being shredded by a black hole, as well as a supernova. They came to the conclusion that the best explanation is a wind hole.
A star much larger than the Sun exploded as a supernova, leaving behind a smaller star. Most of the original star's mass was torn apart. The powerful magnetic field sweeps through the surrounding space, speeding up charged particles and causing strong radio emissions.
The radio emission could not be seen from the view of the explosion debris. As the shell expanded, it became less dense.
Hallinan said that this happened between the first and second observations.
The Crab Nebula is one of the most well-known examples of a pulsar wind nebula. The Crab can be seen in telescopes.
The Crab is 10,000 times more energetic than the object we have found. He believes it is an emerging "super Crab"
It is possible that the magnetic field is strong enough for the neutron star to be a magnetar, a class of super-magnetic objects. Magnetars are one of the leading candidates for the origin of the fast radio burst.
This would be the first magnetar caught in the act of appearing, and it's very exciting.
There are some Fast Radio Bursts that have been associated with persistent radio sources. There is no evidence of strong variability in their properties.
"Our discovery of a very similar source switch on suggests that the radio sources associated with FRBs are also likely to be Luminous pulsar wind nebulae."
Further observations will be conducted to learn more about the object and to keep an eye on it.
More information: aas.org/
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