An international team of researchers led by the National Institute for Astrophysics (Inaf) has discovered the existence of a connection between thermonuclear X-ray explosions that occur on the surface of accreting neutron stars and the powerful jets emitted by these sources. The researchers also directly measured the speed of a jet for the first time, improving our understanding of their launch mechanism. The results have just been published in the journal Nature. Melania Del Santoan astrophysicist from Marcianise who works onINAF IASF Palermo is a co-author, together with the Australian postdoc researcher Thomas D. Russell always at the same institute, of an important study published yesterday in the prestigious scientific journal Nature on “thermonuclear explosions that enhance the jets of the X-ray binaries”. Neutron stars are the remnants of massive stars that ended their evolution with a supernova explosion. Characterized by having an enormous mass compressed into a very small volume – which is why they are also called ‘compact objects’ – these celestial bodies can spend their entire existence in solitude, but they can also pair up, in so-called X-ray binaries (X-ray binaries, in English). These are astrophysical systems in which a neutron star (or a black hole) attracts matter from the unfortunate companion star, using it to its advantage to increase mass in a process known as growth. Del Santo explains in this video what it consists of and how this important result was obtained. To learn more about the topic click here.
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