New Delhi (NVI): A massive thermonuclear explosion coming from outer space was recently detected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) after an intense beam of x-rays that got picked up by the agency’s orbital observatory NICER.
The explosion seems to be a distant pulsar, which is the stellar remains of a star that blew up in a supernova but was too small to form a black hole, according to space agency reports.
According to Science Alert, NASA’s astrophysicist Peter Bult, who led the research said, “This burst was outstanding,” adding that, “We see a two-step change in brightness, which we think is caused by the ejection of separate layers from the pulsar surface, and other features that will help us decode the physics of these powerful events.”
The Science Alert reported that astronomers think the thermonuclear explosion was caused by helium that sunk beneath the surface of the pulsar and fused into a ball of carbon, NICER head Zaven Arzoumanian said.
He further explained, “Then the helium erupts explosively and unleashes a thermonuclear fireball across the entire pulsar surface.”
–ps
