New research suggests that a fast-spinning neutron star with an incredibly strong magnetic field “breaks” when it destroys a space rock. About 30,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way, the neutron star SGR 1935+2154 seemed to “go wrong”, changing its rational velocity for a very short time after the asteroid was pulled apart by its own gravity. . The failure was that the star changed its spin rate while simultaneously emitting a fast radio burst (FRB), a powerful burst of radio waves.

In a new study of failed stars, astronomers may finally attribute these mysterious bursts of radio energy to these extreme stellar bodies known as magnetars.

Like all neutron stars, magnetars are born when the star runs out of fuel for nuclear fusion, the process that creates the external energy needed to keep the star from collapsing under its own gravity.

When a star’s outer layers are shattered in a powerful supernova or stellar explosion, the inner core collapses, producing a stellar remnant whose mass of the Sun is compressed to a width equivalent to an average city on Earth. (Thus, a teaspoon of neutron star material brought to Earth weighs 1 billion tons.)

The collapse also shifts the dying star’s magnetic field lines, creating the strongest magnetic fields in the universe. Therefore, this type of neutron star with a strong magnetic field is known as a magnetar.

Meanwhile, FRBs have become an enigma since the first, Lorimer Burst, was detected in 2007. These very rarely repeated radio pulses, lasting from fractions of a millisecond to three seconds, were first associated with magnetars in 2020 when astronomers detected two fast-firing FRBs from the Milky Way.

Although the link between magnetars and FRBs has been established, scientists still do not understand what the communication mechanism really is.

A new study suggests that magnetars can produce FRBs when their enormous gravitational pull creates large tidal forces on an asteroid large enough to shatter space rock. (The same effect is seen around black holes during tidal events; when a star gets too close to a cosmic titan, its gravitational pull splits the star into pieces.)

Since neutron stars are actually remnants of dead stars, it’s possible that they’re surrounded by remnants of planetary systems. If these areas are similar to our solar system, this debris would contain asteroids.

If the magnetar’s gravity pulls on the asteroid and destroys it, the momentum carried by the space rock through the dead planetary system cannot be erased by the laws of physics. Due to the transfer of momentum carried by the asteroid to the magnetar, a deterioration in the speed of the magnetar occurs.

If the asteroid is swung in the same direction as the neutron star, this motion accelerates the upward spin of the dense stellar remnant – the “glitch.” If the asteroid moves in the opposite direction of the magnetar’s spin, the transferred angular momentum slows its spin, which is classified as “anti-fault”.

The remnants of the destroyed asteroid are then trapped in the magnetar’s intense magnetic field, causing the lines of force to tangle, break, and reconnect. This process, called magnetic reconnection, detonates FRBs.

Eventually, what’s left of the space rock will fall onto the surface of the neutron star. According to NASA, the gravity of one of these stellar remnants is so strong that an object the mass of a marshmallow falling on its surface could release energy equivalent to the explosion of 1,000 hydrogen bombs.

This means that asteroid material colliding with the surface of a neutron star must create powerful bursts of energy at different light frequencies that astronomers can detect. Adapting to this effect, scientists can help discover more asteroids destroyed by magnetars, further strengthening the link between these neutron stars and the destructive phenomena they cause to create FRBs. Source