Thursday, February 24, 2011

Anti-gravity superfluid superconductor core uncovered inside neutron star

Brian Murphy - A University of Alberta astronomer has glimpsed the inner working of a neutron star and found a unique world where the physics can be described as "weird." Craig Heinke's team found the neutron star's core contained a superfluid, a friction-less liquid that could seemingly defy the laws of gravity.

"If you could put some of this superfluid in a jar it would flow up the walls of the container and over the edge," said Heinke.

Heinke says the core of the neutron star also contains a superconductor, a perfect electrical conductor. "An electric current in a superconductor never loses energy—it could keep circulating forever."

These discoveries came about when the researchers used NASA's Chanda space satellite telescope to investigate a sudden temperature drop on one particular neutron star 11,000 light years from Earth. A neutron star is the extremely dense core left behind from an exploding star, or supernova.

Heinke says this neutron star, known as the Cassiopeia A offered the researchers a great opportunity.

"It's only 330 years old," said Heinke. "We've got ringside seats to studying the life cycle of a neutron star from its collapse to its present, cooling off state."

The researchers determined that the neutron star's surface temperature is dropping because its core recently transformed into a superfluid state and is venting off heat in the form of neutrinos, sub atomic particles that flood the universe. Here on Earth our bodies are constantly bombarded by neutrinos, with 100 billion neutrinos passing harmlessly though our eyes every second.

They also found that the neutron star contains a superconductor, the highest temperature (millions of degrees) superconductor known.

This research helps us to better understand the life cycles of stars, as well as the behavior of matter at incredibly high densities.

via 'Weird science' uncovered inside neutron star.

2 comments:

Mirlen101 said...

In the singularity state gravity ceases to exist . During the big bang with energy flying apart outward in a fairly even distribution , gravity is hardly noticeable . It is when the universe started to condense into blobs ;-) or celestial bodies ( planets moons etc. ) that gravity is most pronounced . The higher the difference in relative density , the higher the gravity . But when the density goes towards an absolute ( a singularity ;-) you get closer to zero gravity and zero timespace . Every measure goes towards zero . I'm not sure how the temperatures could could rise to those levels when everything is going towards zero ? I think the temperature is a relative measure , observed measure . Heat being measured from outside of the densest areas as it passes through those highly dense areas . Like a super conductor of heat . The heat not being really from the core but passing through the core with almost no resistance .And being expelled by the core that has to release it's energy because of the super compression . The heat passing through the core would seem to jump timespace because timespace would be nearing zero ! Like a wormhole bent in on itself ! ;-) At super density the core should be cooling and super heated at the same time ( sort of ;-)The core being dense would throw heat off as sub particles like neutrinos in mass . As the energy is thrown off ( dissipates ) it loses heat then cools . The temperature read from outside of the core would read it as super hot but from inside the core it would be going towards zero as it loses energy . At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it ! ;-)

Mirlen101 said...

Who put all those smiley faces in my banter ! ? ;-)