A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, two neutron stars collided, giving birth to a black hole and producing an outflow of plasma, which appears to be travelling through intergalactic space at four times the speed of light.
Its speed is more than 97 percent of the speed of light
Scientists have discovered a superfast jet of particles, which deviates only 20 ° from the line connecting the neutron star and the Earth.
Although her own speed only slightly less than the speed of light for observers on Earth, the illusion that it moves four times faster.
The observations were carried out using the radio interferometer Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) antenna grid with superlong bases, consisting of 10 radio telescopes. After 75 days after the merger of neutron stars, scientists have discovered the region emitting the radiation, and she moved so quickly that it can be explained by the jet — superfast plasma jets.
it's actual speed is more than 97 percent of the speed of light.
The collision of the two super-dense neutron stars, remnants of massive stars that died in supernova explosions, ejected a shell of debris into space. Inside this shell, they collapsed into a black hole whose powerful gravity began sucking up material like gas and dust. That material formed a rapidly-spinning disk that shot out a pair of jets that erupted from its poles, shooting into space.
The collision was spotted last August; the jet was first spotted 75 days after the merger, then again 230 days after. It was detected via the Very Long Baseline Array, a system of ten radio telescopes. The motion was so fast that it could only by explained by a jet, a superfast outflow of plasma.
"Jets are enigmatic phenomena seen in a number of environments, and now these exquisite observations in the radio part of the electromagnetic spectrum are providing fascinating insight into them, helping us understand how they work," said Joe Pesce, a program director at the National Science Foundation.
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