Spinning stars shed new light on strange signal coming from galactic center

Researchers from The Australian National University have found an alternative explanation for a mysterious signal coming from the center of the galaxy.

The form of radiation that has the shortest wavelength and highest energy is called a ganty-ray.

The co-author of the study said that the signal may come from a specific type of rapidly-rotating neutron star, the super-dense stellar remnants of some stars much more massive than ours.

Astronomers have been puzzled by the concentration of gamma-rays emerging from the center of our galaxy.

Associate Professor Crocker said that their work did not throw any doubt on the existence of the signal.

It is based on millisecond pulsars that spin around 100 times a second.

Scientists have previously detected emissions from individual millisecond pulsars in the vicinity of the solar system. Our model shows that the emission from a whole population of such stars would produce a signal compatible with the Galactic Center Excess.

Scientists may have to rethink where they look for dark matter clues after the discovery.

Associate Professor Crocker said that the nature of dark matter is unknown so any potential clues garner a lot of excitement.

Our results point to another important source of production.

The next closest large galaxy to our own may be due to millisecond pulsars.

The research was led by an ANU Masters student and involved scientists from The Australian Defense Force Academy, University of Canterbury, and University of Tokyo.

Nature Astronomy has published the research.

More information: Roland Crocker, Millisecond pulsars from accretion-induced collapse as the origin of the Galactic Centre gamma-ray excess signal, Nature Astronomy (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-022-01658-3. www.nature.com/articles/s41550-022-01658-3 Journal information: Nature Astronomy Citation: Spinning stars shed new light on strange signal coming from galactic center (2022, April 28) retrieved 28 April 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-04-stars-strange-galactic-center.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.