Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here. Given the vastness of the universe and the few short millennia that humans have been gazing star ward, it's no surprise that we're still discovering how things work out there. One good example of this ongoing process is the cosmic cow, which is the unofficial name affectionately used by astronomers to refer to a t cow or cow an unexplained X ray phenomenon that occurred
in the name was procedurally generated. The letters ceow just happened to come together, but it's pretty cute. Today, researchers have a strong hypothesis to explain the cosmic cow and guide future research into black holes, neutron stars, and other as yet unexplained events in the farthest reaches of the universe. To understand why the cosmic cow caut us ronomers, attention, let's talk about the life cycle of stars, including star death.
Of course, there's a whole range of star types and sizes, which means there's no normal way for stars to die, and even dying isn't an accurate word, as stars simply move from one phase of life to another. In any case, it's broadly accurate to say that when most massive stars, that is, stars much larger than our Sun, reached the end of their life cycle and have consumed all of the fuel within their cores, they explode in a supernova and then become either a black hole or a neutron star,
but depending on the star's original size. Astronomers have been measuring supernovas for a long time. The first possible recorded supernova dates back to Indian astronomers records around four thousand, five hundred BC plus remind us about a thousand years.
Since then, there have been many notable supernovas, including one recorded by Chinese astronomers in one eight five C and another by Johanna's Kepler and many other astronomers across the globe in sixteen o four, plus dozens more recently, thanks to advancements in telescope science, so astronomers generally understand what they're seeing when a particularly bright emission appears in the sky.
That's what was so baffling about this so called cosmic cow when astronomers first observed it in June of astronomers using a telescope at Helic Club Observatory in Hawaii noticed the bright X ray emission, which persisted for three weeks and glowed ten times more brightly than supernovas that astronomers
had previously studied. Only now years later do we have a sense of what may have caused this bright emission, A bouncing bundle of joy for the universe in the form of either a newborn black hole or neutron star. Astronomers at m I T, led by research scientist dear Rage DJ Pashum at the Covley Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, studied the emissions from the cow for several months and published their findings in the
journal Nature Astronomy in December. They determined it's likely the result of a massive energy output caused by a black hole or neutron star enjoying its first meal of its origin star. Unlike other supernovas, the energy emitted by the Cow occurred a bit differently, hence the bright, long lasting glow observed in the sky. Given the unique data his team was studying, Pashum admitted he was hoping that the explanation would point to a black hole eating an exotic star.
He told Science News. I was a little bit disappointed, but I'm more blown away that this could be direct evidence of the birth of a black hole. This is an even cooler result. The results of this m I T study suggest that astrophysicists might use a similar protocol to examine the data from other unexplained origin phenomena, for example,
fast blue optical transient phenomen enough. There are about a dozen of these that have been recorded, and astronomers may now be able to come up with new hypotheses to explain these events which happened in the distant reaches of the universe. Additionally, the cosmic cow now gives astronomers a guide when it comes to looking for new neutron stars and baby black holes. Studying black holes is a big priority for NASA right now, and it's always good to have a better idea of what to look for and
to gain a better understanding of the life cycle. If you want to keep an eye on black holes to look into the Imaging X ray polar Imatry Explorer, which NASA launched in December, and the Chandra X ray Observatory. These two space telescopes are gazing across the vast reaches of our galaxy and universe to measure the X ray emissions of typical black holes, though, as we're learning, there are a typical black holes too m HM. Today's episode is based on the article what is a Cosmic Cow?
On how stuff Works dot Com written by Valerie Stymond. Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff Works dot Com and is produced by Tyler Clang and Ramsay Young. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows