2004 SPACE SCIENCE VIDEOTAPES |
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Tape Title | Record ID | Date Produced | TRT: |
Synopsis |
| NUCLEAR FLASHBULB REVEALS BIZARRE STAR'S INNER SECRETS
| G04-011 | 02/23/04 | 00:04:53 | Scientists at NASA and the Canadian Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA) have captured unprecedented details of the swirling flow of gas hovering just a few miles from the surface of a neutron star, itself a sphere only about ten miles (16km) across.
A massive and rare explosion on the surface of this neutron star -- pouring out more energy in three hours than the Sun does in 100 years -- illuminated the region and allowed the scientists to spy on details never before revealed. They could see details as fine as the neutron star's accretion disk, a ring of gas swirling around and flowing onto the neutron star, as the disk buckled from the explosion and then slowly recovered its original form after approximately 1,000 seconds.
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TAPE CONTENTS: |
| ITEM (1a): Nuclear Flashbulb Reveals Inner Secrets - Animation - The super-dense core of a dead star transformed itself into a brilliant flashbulb powered by a nuclear explosion, revealing the never-before-seen region just above its surface, where matter is caught in the crushing grip of its gravity.
The surface of the neutron star is coated with a pure carbon shell that is several kilometers thick. Here we see that carbon shell ignite in a nuclear explosion, causing the accretion disk to be puffed out away from the star. Scientists have observed for the first time the inner edge of that puffed up disk, since it was illuminated by X-rays from the nuclear explosion. Eventually the carbon burning on the neutron star runs out and the disk collapses back.
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (1b): Nuclear Flashbulb Reveals Inner Secrets - Animation (Close-Up Version)
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (1c): Flashbulb Explosion - Slowed-down version of just the blast. (slowed down by a factor of 4)
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (1d): Nuclear Flashbulb Reveals Inner Secrets: Explaining The "Wobble" - The animation realistically depicts a symbiotic binary star system. This system consists of two stars-- a neutron star (shown here as being small and dark), and a dwarf star (the larger blue star). These two stars orbit each other around a common center called the barycenter. The neutron star is the more massive of the two stars, which allows it to rob superheated material from the dwarf. This material flows rapidly from the dwarf onto the neutron star through an accretion bridge, where it backs up into a pancake shaped "accretion disk" around the neutron star. The stars are in a gravitational "tug-of-war" (shown as the string being distorted between the two stars), which causes the wobble seen in the animation.
Courtesy: NASA
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