University of Alberta astronomer Craig Heinke and his research team have looked into the heart of a neutron star and found a world where the physics can only be described as "weird." Using NASA's Chanda space satellite telescope to investigate a neutron star about 11,000 light years from Earth known as Cassiopeia A, Heinke and his team found the neutron star's core contained a superfluid, a frictionless liquid that could seemingly defy the laws of gravity.
"If you could put some of this superfluid in a jar it would flow up the walls of the container and over the edge," says Heinke.
A neutron star is the extremely dense core left behind from an exploding star, or supernova. And this one, says Heinke, "is only 330 years old. We've got ringside seats to studying the life cycle of a neutron star from its collapse to its present, cooling-off state."
Heinke says the core of the neutron star also contains a superconductor, a perfect electrical conductor. "An electric current in a superconductor never loses energy - it could keep circulating forever."
The researchers determined that the neutron star's surface temperature is dropping because its core recently transformed into a superfluid state and is venting off heat in the form of neutrinos, sub-atomic particles that flood the universe. They also found that the neutron star's interior contains a superconductor, which affects how the neutron star cools.
"This research helps us better understand stars and the behaviour of matter at levels of density and heat that could never be duplicated and studied here on Earth," says Heinke
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