Scientists endured an "interstellar race against time" to measure a space-time warp, leading to new insight into a binary star system.
Researchers measured the space-time warp in the gravity of a binary star and determined the mass of a neutron star right before it disappeared, the University of British Columbia reported.
The research team successfully measured the masses of both stars in binary pulsar system J1906. The pulsar was observed to spin and emit a "lighthouse-like" radio wave beam every 144 milliseconds and orbit its companion star every four hours.
"By precisely tracking the motion of the pulsar, we were able to measure the gravitational interaction between the two highly compact stars with extreme precision," said University of British Columbia astronomer Ingrid Stairs. "These two stars each weigh more than the Sun, but are still over 100 times closer together than the Earth is to the Sun. The resulting extreme gravity causes many remarkable effects."
The theory of general relativity shows neutron stars wobble like spinning tops as they move through the gravity of nearby stars. When the pulsar travels through a curved space-time in its orbit its spin axis is altered.
"Through the effects of the immense mutual gravitational pull, the spin axis of the pulsar has now wobbled so much that the beams no longer hit Earth," said Joeri van Leeuwen, an astrophysicist at the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, and University of Amsterdam, who led the study.
This is the first time such a young star has been observed to disappear through precession, but it is expected to come back into view in about 160 years.
The results were published in the Astrophysical Journal and presented today at the American Astronomical Society meeting.
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