Artist’s animation of HD 45166, the most magnetic massive star ever found
This video shows an artist’s animation of HD 45166, a massive star recently discovered to have a powerful magnetic field of 43 000 gauss, the strongest magnetic field ever found in a massive star. Intense winds of particles blowing away from the star are trapped by this magnetic field, enshrouding the star in a gaseous shell as illustrated here.
This finding provides clues to the origin of magnetars, compact dead stars laced with magnetic fields at least a billion times stronger than the one in HD 45166. Astronomers believe that this star will end its life as a magnetar. As it collapses under its own gravity, its magnetic field will strengthen, and the star will eventually become a very compact core with a magnetic field of around 100 trillion gauss — the most powerful type of magnet in the Universe.
HD 45166 is part of a binary system. In the background, we get a glimpse of HD 45166’s companion, a normal blue star that has been found to orbit at a far larger distance than previously reported.
Źródło:ESO/L. Calçada
O filmie
Identyfikator: | eso2313b |
Data publikacji: | 17 sierpnia 2023 20:00 |
Powiązane komunikaty: | eso2313 |
Czas trwania: | 19 s |
Frame rate: | 25 fps |