Mumbai: An international team of
astrophysicists, led by Sudip Bhattacharyya from the
city-based Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR),
have made a discovery using 'thermonuclear burst' to reveal
the true size of Neutron stars.
"To understand the core of the nature of dense matter at
the core of the neutron star, one has to measure the size of
it. The thermonuclear bursts are kind of hydrogen bombs going
off all over the surface of the Neutron star, which is used as
a tool by the international team," Bhattachryya of the
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics told today.
"Data analysis through a theoretical model has led to the
new discovery," he said. The lack of a reliable measurement of
the neutron star size was the key obstacle to understand the
nature of the matter higher than the nuclear density. "Now
Thermonuclear bursts can give away this size," he said.
The surface determines intensity of the burst and from
the total intensity of the burst, one can get the surface area
(size) of neutron star, Bhattacharyaa said.
Neutron stars are the densest objects in the universe
that we can see. These stars are around 1.5 times the sun's
weight, but are so small that they can fit within a city, the
Astrophysicist said.
The team comprises of Coleman Miller from the University
of Maryland in US, and Duncan Galloway of Monash University
in Australia.
Bureau Report
First Published: Tuesday, October 06, 2009, 21:42