Discovered “black widow” swallows the closest mate to Earth – Information Technology

With a distance of 3,000 light years, the “black widow” pulsar couple and their bad partner ZTFJ1406 + 1222 have just broken the record for “closest to the earth”, revealing horror details.

According to Space, about 20 binary systems consisting of “black widows” and mates being swallowed up have been discovered in the galaxy containing the Earth’s Milky Way (the Milky Way).

“Black widow” in the animal kingdom refers to a poisonous spider that specializes in eating its mate after having sex. Astronomers’ black widow is a pulsar – a neutron star that rotates extremely fast. A pulsar is one of the most powerful extreme objects in the universe, capable of tearing thousands of Earths apart even though the size of a grapefruit is sometimes the size of a grapefruit. They are the “zombie” of massive stars that have exploded.

Graphic image depicting a couple of small “black widows” and their giant partner being fiercely swallowed – Photo: Goddard Space Flight Center – NASA

When the pulsar has a companion, it will continually steal material from its partner. The more matter that accumulates, the more it releases a fierce stream of X-rays and gamma rays, which continue to corrode and destroy the companion star.

The binary system has just been identified as a pair of “black widows” – the closest mates in astronomical history. They orbit each other in a rhythmic dance, orbiting only 62 minutes. The partner is “locked” to the “black widow” in the same way that the Moon is locked into the Earth, always pointing one side towards the host object.

There is a third companion star orbiting this pair, but in a very wide orbit, it takes about 10,000 years to complete one revolution. So it fortunately escaped the influence of the “black widow”.

According to Science Alert, a team of scientists led by Dr. Kevin Burdge from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT – USA) used data from the Zwicky Transient Facility program from the Palomar Observatory located in California – USA to find the pair. this horror couple.

Dr Burdge added that although this binary system exhibits all the properties of a typical black widow – sexual partner, it does not release intense X-ray – gamma rays around like previous couples. there.

So it’s still possible that the dreaded pulsar isn’t exactly a black widow but something mysterious, new, and extremely dangerous from the universe.