Astronomers say a “hyperburst” nuclear explosion within a neutron star could explain its strange behaviour – but the conditions required to create the explosion are so rare that we will probably never see one again
An artist’s illustration of an explosion in space
Shutterstock/mik ulyannikov
Astronomers think they have found evidence for an extremely powerful nuclear explosion in space – one so rare that we are unlikely to ever see its like again.
The explosion seems to have taken place inside a strange neutron star located 140,000 light-years from Earth called MAXI J0556–332. Neutron stars are the remnant cores of larger stars that have exploded in supernovas, leaving city-sized objects that contain up to twice the mass of our sun. MAXI J0556–332 was discovered in 2011, …
