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Astronomers have discovered 21 stars like our Sun in orbit around neutron stars—heavy, compact remains of massive stars that previously exploded. The hidden neutron stars were discovered through their gravitational effects alone. As the neutron stars orbit around, they tug on the Sun-like stars, causing them to wobble. The European Space Agency's Gaia mission detected this wobble by observing the orbits of the Sun-like stars (yellow dots) over a period of three years. The Sun-like stars are green in this animation, and the neutron stars (and their orbits) are purple.

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Astronomers have discovered 21 stars like our Sun in orbit around neutron stars—heavy, compact remains of massive stars that previously exploded. The hidden neutron stars were discovered through their gravitational effects alone. As the neutron stars orbit around, they tug on the Sun-like stars, causing them to wobble. The European Space Agency's Gaia mission detected this wobble by observing the orbits of the Sun-like stars (yellow dots) over a period of three years. The Sun-like stars are green in this animation, and the neutron stars (and their orbits) are purple.

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Corey S Powell (coreyspowell@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Jul-2024 03:05:28 JST Corey S Powell

All across our galaxy, the European Space Agency's Gaia space telescope is finding stars like the Sun orbiting neutron stars, the remains of supernova explosions.
How did those suns survive the devastation? Did entire worlds get sterilized in the process?
https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/sun-like-stars-found-orbiting-hidden-companions #science #space #astronomy #life #ESA

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