Record breaking neutron star (Forwarded)

Danish National Space Center
Copenhagen, Denmark

2007-02-01

Record breaking neutron star

A neutron star with a record breaking spin rate has been found near the
center of the Milky Way.

Observations made with an instrument built at the Danish National Space
Center on ESA's INTEGRAL satellite have been instrumental in the discovery
of a record breaking spin rate in a neutron star near the center of the
Milky Way. The detection that the source was beginning to emit strong bursts
of X-rays was done by the Danish-built instrument on the ESA's INTEGRAL
gamma-ray observatory, and this triggered observations of the high frequency
signals with a NASA satellite, RXTE, specifically designed for this type of
measurements.

The star was found to spin at the dizzying rate of 1122 revolutions per
second, more than 50% faster than any spinning star previously known. The
discovery is of importance for modelling the forces which keep neutron star
matter together. A person standing on the equator of the neutron star would
move at a quarter of the speed of light and be subject to a centrifugal
force one thousand billion times the Earth's gravity force.