White Dwarf Star Orbiting A Pulsar Discovered By ESO's VLT

Astronomers have used ESO’s Very Large Telescope, along with radio telescopes around the world, to find and study a bizarre stellar pair consisting of the most massive neutron star confirmed so far, orbited by a white dwarf star. This strange new binary allows tests of Einstein’s theory of gravity — general relativity — in ways that were not possible up to now. So far the new observations exactly agree with the predictions from general relativity and are inconsistent with some alternative theories. The results will appear in the journal Science on 26 April 2013.

Scientists using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) has discovered an unusual pairing; a white dwarf star orbiting a neutron star (PSR J0348+0432). The neutron star is a pulsar around 20 kilometres across but is two times heavier than the Sun. This discovery and the observation of how the two stellar objects behave is how Einstein's Theory of General Relativity predicted it would behave.

A white dwarf star is a small star which is very dense and is mostly made up of electron-degenerate matter. It is a star that has reached the end of its normal life cycle and has stopped nuclear fusion (although some fusion reactions happen and can still generate energy). A white dwarf star may be as big as the Earth but has the same mass as that of the Sun.

A pulsar is a neutron star that is formed when a massive star's core is compressed during a super nova. This event collapses the core and forms the neutron star. Pulsars are extermely dense and highly magnetized. They rotate and emit a beam of electromagnetic radiation. This radiation is picked up as radio waves in the form of pulses. The name pulsar is abbreviated from the term "pulsating star".

Weekend Video: What is Time?

One question that boggles the mind of physicists is the question, What is time? Time is experienced by everyone and everything in the Universe. Everyone has an innate notion of what it is but when it comes to science, something as simple as time can be very complicated to explain and understand.

Einstein in his theories of relativity has proven that time can slow down or even speed up. He theorized that two factors can influence the passage of time; motion and gravity. But can time, as all dimensions do, go in the reverse direction? What is the significance of space-time?

In this video, an episode of the PBS series, The Fabric of the Cosmos, well known physicist Brian Greene, shows us how scientists are trying to study and understand the concept of time.

Brian Greene is an American theoretical physicist and a proponent of string theory. He is a well known science communicator specializing on popularizing theoretical physics, in particular string theory and the search for a unified theory of physics.

He has written many books on the subject and his first book, The Elegance of the Universe was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize. It was made into a TV series in which it won the 2003 Peabody Award.

Greene has been a professor at Columbia University since 1996.

Using 'Hidden Influence Inequality' To Explain Quantum Nonlocality

In 1964, physicist John Stewart Bell published his paper, "On the Einstein Podolsky Rosen paradox". In the paper, he derived his theorem, Bells Theorem, that states that - No physical theory of local hidden variables can ever reproduce all of the predictions of quantum mechanics. Local hidden variables refers to realism and the local causality theory where combined, it meant that distant events are assumed to have no instantaneous (or at least faster-than-light) effect on local ones.

This meant that classical mechanics cannot explain everything that is going on in quantum mechanics.

Speed of Light Theory To Be Challenged Again

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LATEST CERN NEWS
18 March 2012
CERN UPDATE: ICARUS Experiment Indicate Neutrino Speed Consistent With Speed Of Light
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After announcing that they have observed particles travelling faster than the speed of light, Physicists at CERN ( European Organization for Nuclear Research) will be conducting the experiment again but in another way. They will address issues that may others have brought up that may have given the first experiment false readings. They want to make sure that their readings are accurate.

In the experiment, particles called neutrinos are sent through the Earth's crust from CERN in Geneva towards Italy at the Gran Sasso laboratory 732km away. The experiment is named OPERA (Oscillation Project with Emulsion-Tracking Apparatus).

Last September, scientists announced that they have observed that the particles were travelling faster than the speed of light. Scientists consistently noticed that the neutrinos traveled 60 nanoseconds faster than the speed of light. Current theories on physics state that this is impossible.

Last month, Ronald van Elburg of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands found an explanation that explained the error in reading the faster than light in neutrino speed. According to van Elburg, it has to do with using gps satellites that OPERA used in measuring the neutrino speed.

Video: OPERA experiment

In the re-calibrated experiment, instead of using firing the protons in a long pulse of 10 microseconds, they will be sent in a series of short bursts of just one or two nanoseconds with a gap of 500 nanoseconds between each burst. They will also be switching from accelerating protons to accelerating lead ions. Hopefully, they will settle the issue once and for all.

According to Albert Einstein's theory of special relativity, nothing can travel faster than light. Most of modern physics is based on this theory. If this is proved wrong and faster than light speed is possible, physicists the world over would have to rethink and redo everything that they know about physics.

Other physics lab are conducting their own experiments as well as collaborating on this one.Teams working on other Gran Sasso experiments will begin independent cross-check analysiss of Opera's results. The US Minos experiment and Japan's T2K experiment will also test the observations.

RELATED LINKS

CERN
OPERA website
CERN UPDATE: ICARUS Experiment Indicate Neutrino Speed Consistent With Speed Of Light
CERN Update: Faster Than Speed of Light May Be Due To Hardware Fault
Follow Up Report on OPERA Faster Than Light Particles
Speed of Light Theory To Be Challenged Again
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