Neutron Stars Create 'Perfect' Explosion in Space, Forming Senseless Symmetrical Sphere

Two neutron stars collided which caused a huge explosion but with an unusually flawless form, baffling scientists. Usually, a collision between neutron stars would lead to a flattened cloud but the recently observed explosion formed a perfectly spherical shape, SpaceAcademy.org reports.

It is still unclear how this is possible, but a new study may shed light on the fundamental physics involved and help scientists calculate the universe's age. Astrophysicists from the Universe of Copenhagen discovered the kilonova and described it in full in their study, titled "Spherical Symmetry in the Kilonova At2017gfo/GW170817," which was published in the journal Nature.

Mysterious Spherical Shape of a Kilonova

Kilonovae are massive explosions that occur when two neutron stars orbit each other and eventually collide. They are responsible for the creation of both large and little objects in the cosmos, from black holes to atoms in every matter.

However, there is still a lot of unknown about this terrible phenomenon. The kilonova in the study was discovered in 2017 and scientists were able to collect extensive data for the first time.

They named it the 2017 kilonova AT2017gfo, which gave them new data comprising of ultraviolet, optical, and infrared light from the X-shooter spectrograph on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, paired with prior analysis of gravitational waves, radio waves, and Hubble Space Telescope data.

However, how the kilonova may be spherical remains a mystery. Researchers said in Phys.org that unexpected physics must be at work. Albert Sneppen explains that the most likely method to make it spherical is if a significant quantity of energy rushes out from the center of the explosion and smoothes out an assymetrical form.

Moreover, the team suggests that a significant part of the mystery may lie in how neutron stars were temporarily fused as a single hypermassive star before collapsing. Darach Watson said that some kind of magnetic bomb could have been created at the moment when the enormous magnetic field of that single star is released after collapsing into a black hole and distributed more spherically.

But this theory does not explain why researchers only detected lighter elements distributed evenly in space, whereas previous models suggest that heavy elements are created in the kilonova. Therefore, the team believes that the enigmatic elementary particles are still unknown and likely contributed to the spherical shape of the kilonova.

Kilonova's Spherical Shape May Show How Fast the Universe Is Expanding

According to the press release, scientists are also interested in the spherical shape of the kilonova for another reason. Sneppen said that this is a great deal of discussion on how fast the universe is expanding. Its speed could imply how old the cosmos is, adding another method to complement the existing two ways of determining the universe's age.

The method called the "cosmic distance ladder" is being used today to measure the speed of growth of the universe. Scientists calculate the distance between different objects in the universe, which acts as steps on a ladder.

Watson said that scientists can use kilonovae to understand bright and spherical shapes as a new way to measure distance independently, which serves as a new cosmic ruler. He noted that knowing what shape it is, is critical to understanding the cosmos as each shape emits energy differently. Also, more data is needed from other kilonovae to back up their findings.

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