Thermonuclear behavior of unique neutron star captured
Saturday, March 10, 2012 - 20:30
in Astronomy & Space
A neutron star is the closest thing to a black hole that astronomers can observe directly, crushing half a million times more mass than Earth into a sphere no larger than a city. In October 2010, a neutron star near the center of our galaxy erupted with hundreds of X-ray bursts that were powered by a barrage of thermonuclear explosions on the star's surface. NASA captured the month-long fusillade in extreme detail.