West Virginia University researchers have helped discover the most massive neutron star to date, a breakthrough uncovered through the Green Bank Telescope in Pocahontas County.
West Virginia University researchers have helped discover the most massive neutron star to date, a breakthrough uncovered through the Green Bank Telescope in Pocahontas County.
The neutron star, called J0740+6620, is a rapidly spinning pulsar that packs 2.17 times the mass of the sun (which is 333,000 times the mass of the Earth) into a sphere only 20-30 kilometers, or about 15 miles, across. This measurement approaches the limits of how massive and compact a single object can become without crushing itself down into a black hole.
The star was detected approximately 4,600 light-years from Earth. One light-year is about six trillion miles.
These findings, from the National Science Foundation-funded NANOGrav Physics Frontiers Center, were published today (Sept. 16) in Nature Astronomy.
Read more at West Virginia University
Image: WVU's Maura McLaughlin and Duncan Lorimer use the Green Bank Observatory for research. Here, McLaughlin and Lorimer are standing on top the Green Bank Telescope, which they used to help detect the most massive neutron star ever. (Credit: Scott Lituchy/West Virginia University)
