A “mysterious” cosmic object, located right in the Milky Way, the galaxy in which our solar system is located. It was discovered by a team of researchers, who still wonder about its nature, halfway between a neutron star and a black hole. According to the study published in the journal Science and carried out by the German Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, to which the University of Bologna and the National Institute of Astrophysics of Bologna and Cagliari also contributed, the object shows some characteristics unique, never seen before.
In addition to being superdense, researchers are unable to identify it because it has a mass that is right halfway between two celestial bodies: the black hole and the neutron star. But what is it? Experts say it could be an incredibly massive neutron star, or an extremely small black hole. “Beyond its nature – explains researcher Maya Fishbach in a comment on the study – the discovery of the new object could have fascinating implications for astronomy. The element in fact has a mass between 2.09 and 2.71 masses solar cells and could help understand the physics of extremely dense nuclear matter, supernova explosions, or dynamic interactions such as neutron star mergers within globular clusters.”
Compact objects are usually considered neutron stars or black holes, the difference between them lies precisely in the masses, heavier for the star and lighter for the black hole. In particular, the most massive neutron stars are found in a range between 2.2 and 2.5 solar masses, while black holes rarely reach less than five solar masses. In this case, according to the researchers’ calculations, the cosmic object measures between 2.09 and 2.71 solar masses, a size that makes it difficult to classify. Researchers believe that the object could have been born from the merger of two neutron stars, but the mechanism that led to its birth also remains a mystery. Despite the many (still) unanswered questions, the discovery of this mysterious object could help us better understand the various cosmic phenomena, about which we still know too little.