https://www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet...180970510/
EXCERPT: In a recent paper published in The Astrophysical Journal, a research team led by Bettina Posselt from Pennsylvania State University reported an unexplained heat signature around the neutron star RXJ0806.4–4123.
Neutron stars are the collapsed cores of massive stars. Only 10 to 20 kilometers in diameter, they have enormous gravitational and magnetic fields— so strong, in fact, that electrons are ripped from their nuclei, and protons and neutrons come in close proximity. In such a bizarre environment, the strong nuclear force is dominant, not the electromagnetic force that predominates in our own part of the universe.
The infrared (heat) emissions detected near RXJ0806.4–4123 with the Hubble Space Telescope are puzzling, because they are much stronger than what we’d expect based on the observed optical and ultraviolet emissions from neutron stars. Posselt and colleagues offer two explanations. [...]
Both possibilities are tantalizing, but what does it have to do with life? Long ago, forward thinkers [...] suggested that life on a neutron star could be based on the strong interaction (strong nuclear force) rather than electromagnetic energy. [...] magnetic forces might reshape “normal” atoms into strange configurations exhibiting long, polymer-like chains in which the nuclei lie along a central line and the electrons occupy elongated bands. Magnetically formed polymers could then align to form larger structures.
These are quite fanciful speculations, of course, and even though they help us envision how dynamic complexity can be established, they most likely have nothing to do with life....
MORE: https://www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet...180970510/
EXCERPT: In a recent paper published in The Astrophysical Journal, a research team led by Bettina Posselt from Pennsylvania State University reported an unexplained heat signature around the neutron star RXJ0806.4–4123.
Neutron stars are the collapsed cores of massive stars. Only 10 to 20 kilometers in diameter, they have enormous gravitational and magnetic fields— so strong, in fact, that electrons are ripped from their nuclei, and protons and neutrons come in close proximity. In such a bizarre environment, the strong nuclear force is dominant, not the electromagnetic force that predominates in our own part of the universe.
The infrared (heat) emissions detected near RXJ0806.4–4123 with the Hubble Space Telescope are puzzling, because they are much stronger than what we’d expect based on the observed optical and ultraviolet emissions from neutron stars. Posselt and colleagues offer two explanations. [...]
Both possibilities are tantalizing, but what does it have to do with life? Long ago, forward thinkers [...] suggested that life on a neutron star could be based on the strong interaction (strong nuclear force) rather than electromagnetic energy. [...] magnetic forces might reshape “normal” atoms into strange configurations exhibiting long, polymer-like chains in which the nuclei lie along a central line and the electrons occupy elongated bands. Magnetically formed polymers could then align to form larger structures.
These are quite fanciful speculations, of course, and even though they help us envision how dynamic complexity can be established, they most likely have nothing to do with life....
MORE: https://www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet...180970510/