Objects zoom through space at unfathomable speeds, but one spinning dying star 27,400 light-years away might just be a record setter. It’s a neutron star and is part of a binary pair in system 4U 1820-30.
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00:00Objects zoom through space at unfathomable speeds, but one spinning dying star 27,400
00:09light years away might just be a record setter.
00:12It's a neutron star and is part of a binary pair in system 4U1820-30, and it rotates on
00:18its axis at an insane 716 times every second.
00:23For reference, our central star, the Sun, has an equatorial rotational period of 24
00:28days.
00:29As many physicists who discovered the star's high spin rate say have confirmed, this will
00:33be one of the fastest spinning objects ever found.
00:36Only bested by Pulsar PSR J1748-2446AD, another neutron that spins at 730 rotations per second.
00:45Neutron stars are stellar bodies at the end of their lives, with their collapsed cores
00:49creating massively dense, fast-spinning objects.
00:52Those that become neutron stars are usually 1.1 to 2.3 times the mass of the Sun, but
00:57only around 12 miles across.
00:59Given since 4U1820-30 orbits so close to its binary pair, with a joint orbit lasting
01:05only 11.4 minutes, the fast-spinning star is likely siphoning material and getting even
01:10denser.
01:11When it gets too dense and hot, it will eventually release a burst of thermonuclear energy, becoming
01:16100,000 times brighter than the Sun, meaning it could soon be classified as the fastest
01:21spinning X-ray pulsar ever discovered.