Shocked and awed! This Black Widow Pulsar is Eating its partner

Scientists have spotted the heaviest neutron star in the observable universe and it lies within our Milky Way galaxy. To make things more interesting, the black widow pulsar is devouring its partner star and increasing in density.

The heaviest neutron star lies within our galaxy, say scientists. And it is going to grow even heavier as it consumes its companion star. (NASA)

Neutron stars are one of the most perplexing celestial bodies that we know of. These are the densest objects astronomers can see directly (since black holes cannot be visually observed) and with an extremely high spinning speed, they are also very unpredictable. And in search for more knowledge about the smallest class of stellar objects in space, scientists have discovered the heaviest neutron star in the observable universe, and shockingly, it lies within our Milky Way galaxy. To make things more intriguing, the neutron star is a black widow pulsar (a binary system where a neutron star has an active star as a companion) and it is devouring its partner to get heavier.

Professor Alex Filippenko, co-author of the paper published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters about the cannibal neutron star, explained the relationship between the two companions in this binary system. “As the companion star evolves and starts becoming a red giant, material spills over to the neutron star, and that spins up the neutron star. By spinning up, it now becomes incredibly energized, and a wind of particles starts coming out from the neutron star. That wind then hits the donor star and starts stripping material off, and over time, the donor star's mass decreases to that of a planet, and if even more time passes, it disappears altogether,” said Filippenko in a statement.

The black widow pulsar, named PSR J0952-0607, is also one of the fastest spinning neutron stars with the speed of 707 spins per second.

Scientists find the heaviest neutron star within the Milky Way

Normally, a neutron star weighs about 1.5 solar masses (the mass of our Sun), however, this one has topped the rankings with 2.35 solar masses. And all this matter condensely packed within the radius of 10-20 kilometers makes them extremely dense and capable of producing extremely high amounts of gravitational fields.

The 2.35 solar masses is also considered to be the upper limit for a neutron star because collapsed stars with more than 3 solar masses are believed to turn into black holes. This also means that this particular neutron star must have some very interesting neutron system along with various kinds of quarks moving in a never-seen-before pattern. And this is what scientists are now interested in investigating.

“A high maximum mass for neutron stars suggests that it is a mixture of nuclei and their dissolved up and down quarks all the way to the core. This excludes many proposed states of matter, especially those with exotic interior composition,” said Roger W. Romani, professor of astrophysics at Stanford University in the same statement.