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This Record-Breaking 'Black Widow' Pulsar Is The Biggest Neutron Star Ever

One of the most extreme stars in the Milky Way has just gotten even weirder. Scientists have measured the mass of a neutron star named PSR J0952-0607, and found that it is the most massive neutron star ever discovered, registering 2.35 times the mass of the Sun. If true, this is very close to the theorized upper mass limit of about 2.3 solar masses for neutron stars, which is an excellent laboratory for studying these ultra-dense stars at what we think are on the verge of collapse, in hopes of better understanding. strange quantum states of the matter they are made of. “We know roughly how matter behaves at nuclear densities, such as in the nuclei of uranium atoms,” said astrophysicist Alex Filippenko of the University of California, Berkeley. “A neutron star is like one giant core, but when you have one and a half solar masses of this material, which is about 500,000 Earth masses of cores all stuck together, it’s not at all clear how they’re going to behav...

There Might Be a Planet Orbiting a Cruel Dead Star, And Now We Know How To Find Them

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Have you heard of the LU Camelopardalis, QZ Serpentis, V1007 Herculis, and BK Lyncis? No, they weren’t in the boy band in ancient Rome. They are Cataclysmic Variables, binary stars so close together that one star takes matter from its sibling. This causes the pairs to vary greatly in brightness. Could a planet exist in this chaotic environment? Can we see them? A new study says yes to both. Cataclysmic Variables (CVs) experienced a large increase in brightness. All stars vary in brightness to some degree, even our own sun. But the CV increase in brightness is much more pronounced than in stars like our Sun, and it happens on an irregular basis There are different types of catastrophic variables: classic nova, dwarf nova, multiple supernova, and others. All types share the same basic mechanics. A pair of stars orbit each other closely, and one star is larger than the other. The more massive ones are called primary stars, and draw gas from lower-mass stars, which astronome...

After Years of Searching, Physicists Observe Electrons Flow Into Whirlpools Like Liquids

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For the first time, physicists have witnessed something very interesting: electrons form eddies like liquids. This behavior is one that scientists have long predicted, but never observed before. And that could be the key to developing next-generation electronics that are more efficient and faster. “Electron vortex is expected in theory, but there is no direct evidence yet, and seeing is believing,” said one of the researchers behind the new study, physicist Leonid Levitov of MIT. “Now we’ve seen it, and it’s a clear sign of being in this new regime, where electrons behave as liquids, not as individual particles.” While electrons flowing in a vortex might not sound like a breakthrough, it’s a big deal because flowing like a liquid results in more energy being sent to the end point, instead of being lost on the way while the electrons are pushed around by things like impurities in matter or vibrations in atoms. “We know that when an electro...