The South African astronomer André van Shtaden found an unusual dead pulsar of J1723-2837 in the constellation of the Sagittarius. The star – “vampire” exhausted matter from the star partner located on small distance from it.
What stars eat
Pulsars are the neutron stars formed of the remaining balance which blew up supernew. Narrow bunches of radio waves proceed from their poles.
Young pulsars very quickly rotate and spend own energy for generation of waves, however over time their speed decreases. If the pulsar has a star partner, then it can again begin to rotate quickly, stealing matter from the neighbor.
Each of couple of stars has the area of impact – a so-called cavity of Roche. Its amount directly depends on the mass of a celestial body. As the weight and density of a pulsar is very high, the zone of an attraction of his partner gradually contracts and becomes less than the star. Because of it the star partner gives a part of matter to a pulsar, and it is untwisted.
Confutation of the theory
Van Shtaden is amateur astronomer, however his observations allowed scientists to understand features of behavior of similar pulsars. John Antoniadis from Toronto university notes that data which were collected by the astronomer about J1723-2837 are unique – and in respect of observation duration, and from the point of view of quality.
Pulsars – “vampires” extend matter from stars partners with big breaks
It was initially supposed that the pulsar simply “chokes” with matter and begins to throw out it after an absorption phase. Data of bathtubs of Shtaden refuted this theory. The astronomer found out that brightness of a star partner of a pulsar of J1723-2837 changed more often than the pulsar made a complete round on an orbit. At the same time on a star partner surface in certain time unusual large solar spots appeared
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Antoniadis analysed data and established that brightness of a star partner depends not only on its provision in an orbit and the parties by which it is turned to Earth. The astronomer considers that the star has powerful magnetic field and uses it, resisting matter loss.
When the pulsar steals its matter, the star begins to rotate quicker. Movement of plasma in it becomes more active, magnetic field amplifies. It becomes more difficult to pulsar to attract star matter – plasma which consists of charged particles.
Scientists are sure that further researches will let know why pulsars also sometimes turn into objects of other types.
