Binary Black Holes and 48th Magnetar Westerlund 1-5 - Magnetic Personality in Space as Black Holes feed on Stars

“Not only does this Star have the high velocity expected if it is recoiling from a supernova explosion, but the combination of its low mass, high luminosity, and carbon-rich composition appear impossible to replicate in a single Star -- a smoking gun that shows it must have originally formed with a binary companion”

Dr. Ben Ritchie astronomer from UK's Open University and co-author of a paper who co-wrote the paper on the discovery of Westerlund 1-5 Magnetar

The Universe is full of some truly astounding astronomical wonders. So much so that the field of Astronomy was originally the focus of the earliest Universities in Africa, hence the name “University”!

There have been some noteworthy discoveries, including the discovery of an earth-like exoplanet Kepler-186f in the Constellation Cygnus as stated in my blog article entitled “NASA discovers earth-like exoplanet Kepler-186f in the Constellation Cygnus - 500 light years is awfully far distance to buy beachfront property”. Only a matter of time now before the Kepler Telescope is back online and other larger Space based Telescopes with better resolution to be built in the future discovery intelligent life on a planet.

So while trolling through my archive of article, I stumbled across this incredible astronomy discovery of a Magnetar and a Binary Black Hole by two separate Teams of Astronomers as stated in “Stars play a game of cosmic Catch, create rare Magnetar”, published May 14, 2014 12:03 PM PDT by Michael Franco, CNET News and “Pair of Supermassive Black Holes Spotted”, published April 23, 2014 by Janet Fang, I Fucking Love Science.

I gravitated towards this story because the workings of how they both formed are similar: a Binary pair of stellar objects. In the case of the formation of the Magnetar, it involved a smaller Star and a bigger companion on the verge of a exploding into a supernova.

48^th Magnetar in the Milky Way Galaxy – How to gain a Magnetic Personality in Space

That Magnetar was discovered by the team at the European Southern Observatory located in Germany with their VLT (Very Large Telescope) as stated in “Stars play a game of cosmic Catch, create rare Magnetar”, published May 14, 2014 12:03 PM PDT by Michael Franco, CNET News.

The Magnetar, Westerlund 1-5, located some 16,000 light years away in the Westerlund 1 Star Cluster, Started originally as a Star of about roughly 50 to 100 solar Masses orbiting around a smaller Star, probably about the size of the Sun.

It is one of 48 discovered by Astronomers thus far and are one of the rarest and most exotic forms of Neutron Star Known to astronomers and was published in the Journal, Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Because of the massive gravitational pull of the Bigger, more unstable Star, it began to draw off gouts of matter from its smaller companion. Eventually, the increasing mass of the Bigger Star cause it to go Supernova.

But instead of collapsing into a Black Hole, thanks to the excess mass and possibly because the smaller Star re-absorbed back some of the mass it threw off, it collapsed into a rapidly spinning core of Protons and Electrons, which under the immense Gravity were crushed into a Neutron Pulsar.

The excess mass it began to pull off from the smaller Star again, now reborn like a phoenix as Neutron Star accelerated its spin and thus created a spinning outer layer of ferrous material as well as non-ferrous heavier elements, like a large M&M Candy. Thus this spinning gaseous plasma made up of metal became Magnetized and thus the Magnetar was born.

Another Team member, Francisco Najarro of Spain's Centro de Astrobiología in his statement confirms this material-swap theory of Swirling Ferrous and Non-ferrous Plasma as being the source of the Magnetar incredible Magnetic power, quote: “It is this process of swapping material that has imparted the unique chemical signature to Westerlund 1-5 and allowed the mass of its companion to shrink to low enough levels that a magnetar was born instead of a Black Hole”.

A Pair of Black Holes in an Ordinary Galaxy – Binary Black Holes take turns at Star Feeding

The second discovery involved a dancing pair of Black Holes that were discovered swirling around each other in a two (2) million year dance of Death as stated in “Pair of Supermassive Black Holes Spotted”, published April 23, 2014 by Janet Fang, I Fucking Love Science. 

Dr. Fukun Liu, Astronomer at the Peking University, who had borrowed time on the European Space Agency’s, XMM-Newton (X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission) discovered this duet on Thursday June 10^th 2010 thanks to mere chance; the pair were taking turns ripping matter off a nearby Star, an event which gave of a strong enough radiation signature and thus attracted their attention to study the situation more closely.

In doing a random sweep of the sky on Thursday June 10^th 2010, the XMM-Newton noticed an ejection of X-Rays on a massive scale in the Galaxy named SDSS J120136.02+300305.5. Nothing unusual, just another X-Ray burst, possibly a Pulsar. Except it was from a from a quiet Galaxy, which wasn’t supposed to be actively producing Pulsars and whose Galactic Center was shrouded in Dust clouds, indicating no Star, just stuff to make them.

Then it did the unusual.

Radiation levels dropped to almost zero for 21 days between 27 and 48 days into observing this X-Ray Burst, which was by then going on for weeks. The X-Ray Radiation Level returned to normal and faded a few days later, again for the 21 day period.

This suggests that at some point in time, something was ripping material off the Star, accelerating the material in a magnetic field and thus creating X-Rays. This other object must have had a very massive gravitational field to be doing that and be producing X-Rays, suggesting that the Star had a Black Hole as its companion, very likely as it was at the center of the SDSS J120136.02+300305.5 Galaxy

But it was the period of the dip in X-Ray Radiation that tipped off Dr. Fukun Liu that suggested something else was at play here. The sudden dip in radiation suggested that another large mass, probably another Black Hole or a Neutron Star was also feeding on the same Star. More interestingly, the almost-zero X-Ray Radiation was the result of BOTH objects feeding on the Star simultaneously, suggesting that these two massive objects were rotating around each other and thus taking turns to feed on the Star.

As one got closer, it fed on the Star, which the other was swinging away, putting the Star out of its gravitational reach. Then as their orbits around each other made them equidistant from the Star, for a brief period of time, they were BOTH feeding at the same time.

Then as their orbits resumed, one would be closer and feeding exclusively while the other would be unable to feed from the Star. This would return the X-Ray Radiation patterns to previously predictable patterns.  In looking at the Radiation Data more closely, Dr. Fukun Liu, realized that they'd discovered a pair of Black Holes feeding on a single Star, a rare find.

His theory on binary Black Holes rotating less than 0.6 milliparsecs (2 thousandths of a light year), roughly the width of the Milky Way Galaxy, may have been proven correct with this discovery.  The Thursday June 10^th  2010 Pair of Black Holes was exactly as Dr. Fukun Liu had predicted; gravitational dimming caused by each Black Hole taking turns to feed on the radiation of the Star, temporarily snuffing out the X-Ray Flare from the matter being ripped off the Star's surface.

Eventual, according to his Model, the 2 Black Holes are expected to merge in the next 2 million years. When this occurs, if you eyes could see in X-Rays, it would be the strongest source of X-Ray Radiation and create a deep stirring in the Dark Matter pond that is the Known Universe, to quote Dr. Fukun Liu: “The final merger is expected to be the strongest source of gravitational waves in the Universe”.

Too bad I won’t be around to see it. But perhaps we can harness our understanding of Plasma Jets and Rotating Magnetic Fields to create localized Magnetars on Earth as described in my blog article entitled “KAIST developes DCRS, a long-range Wireless Charging Technology - IEC Charger Standards now obsolete as KAIST makes an Earth based Magnetar” so as to power the Next Generation of Starships that can travel to the Stars in Galaxies far, far away!