Researchers discover extremely dense neutron star 4,600 light-years from Earth

[scavengerspc]

Call me a flat-earth-er if you want to. I don't believe that is possible. Someone screwed up their calculations somewhere.

You can choose to believe that theoretical fiction, if you want. I still believe the phrase don't believe everything you see or hear. And from several light years away (not to mention hundreds), anything can be deceiving.

Ok, I'm not sure what you don't believe.
A Pulsar or a Neutron Star is a collapsed Sun. We have observed and studied these things since the 70's.

 

[scavengerspc]

OK, I had time to check my work and found that the first Neutron Star discovery was actually in 1967. So it's official. I still "choose" to believe, Ummm, facts.

 

[cliffordcooley]

So it's official. I still "choose" to believe, Ummm, facts.

Facts over the centuries have changed with greater perspective. Our perspective stops at the moon and greatly limited by time on this topic. You can only call them unverified facts at this time.

 

[scavengerspc]

Facts have never been more true with tech advancements of the last 75 years.
I'm telling you seriously. Readings and results from something like a Pulsar are on the very low end of the experimental ladder.

Why not just read up on this Cliff? There is a ton of info out there about these things and how they can easily study and interpret the readings. Again on this subject, it's all very basic.

 

[neeyik]

Call me a flat-earth-er if you want to. I don't believe that is possible. Someone screwed up their calculations somewhere.

You can choose to believe that theoretical fiction, if you want. I still believe the phrase don't believe everything you see or hear. And from several light years away (not to mention hundreds), anything can be deceiving.

This document details the method used to determine the mass of neutron stars, and provides example data:

https://www.eso.org/sci/publications/messenger/archive/no.126-dec06/messenger-no126-27-31.pdf

The following provides some information on methods used to determine their diameters:

https://phys.org/news/2018-06-physicists-limits-size-neutron-stars.html
https://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/measuring-neutron-stars-exactly/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171122113003.htm

The best thing about being an astrophysicist is that there is no shortage of examples to investigate:

https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0412641 (2004 catalogue)

Unfortunately, there's only a small number of optically visible pulsars:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_pulsar

However, the most famous of which (the Crab Pulsar) is a known remnant of a supernova observed in 1054, which can be strongly examined in radio, visible, x-ray, and gamma ray spectra. The object's interactions with the remnant gas cloud provides enough data verify mass and diameter to high levels of statistical certainty.

The best current model for the object's properties and behaviour is that of a neutron star. Observations agree with predicted attributes from the model quite well, but the small size and relative lack of nearby examples (the closest is about 400 light years away) makes it difficult to ascertain the accuracy of the finer aspects of the model, the most notable of which being the internal structure of the object.

Until sufficient data comes to light that contradicts the predictions, astrophysicists stick with the model, even when used in alternate models for spacetime. And this is the case in this particular news article: the discovery gave a result for the mass only a little lower than the typical maximum limit as generated by the neutron star model, so while not high enough to disagree with the model's predictions, it is high enough to warrant further research into the end stages of stellar evolution and how very large stars become neutron stars.

 

[scavengerspc]

Actually neeyak hasn't fermi labs detected something like 2000 Pulsars?

 

[neeyik]

Yes the total is around that figure, I just couldn’t find a suitable link to the most up-to-date pulsar catalogue.

 

[scavengerspc]

Yes the total is around that figure, I just couldn’t find a suitable link to the most up-to-date pulsar catalogue.

Hey no problem man in fact truth is on topics such as this I cheat because my Daughter is my source when I can contact her quickly. She is a Meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Maryland and also has a year of astronomy and astrophysics behind her. Or something like that.

So she is my go-to on Earth and Space.

 

[cliffordcooley]

I'm not disputing their findings. Their finding are facts. I will however dispute their conclusions until they can be verified as facts. That will not happen until we can leave our solar system.

Just because a group of people agree with one another, doesn't make it a fact. That makes it a general consensus they call a fact. No amount of links will change the fact, we can not at this time verify those claims.

 

[scavengerspc]

Just because a group of people agree with one another, doesn't make it a fact.

Really? American CONServatives do it all the time.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Can't argue with that.

 

[neeyik]

In the world of the science, that’s precisely how facts are determined - by consent and academic agreement, until there is new data to require a change of agreement.

For example, one might think that the magnetic moment of a neutron is a “set in stone”, unarguable fact due to the ability to study them in laboratories, over and over. But the value has been altered repeatedly over the years, as better techniques and equipment appear.

When I first studied astrophysics as an undergraduate in 1988, the diameters of neutron stars were given to us as being roughly 30 to 50 km in size. The value is now half that, due to advances in radio astronomy.