00:03Objects zoom through space at unfathomable speeds, but one spinning dying star 27,400 light years away might just be
00:11a record setter.
00:12It's a neutron star and is part of a binary pair in system 4U1820-30, and it rotates on its
00:19axis at an insane 716 times every second.
00:23For reference, our central star, the Sun, has an equatorial rotational period of 24 days.
00:28The astrophysicists who discovered the star's high spin rate say if confirmed, this will be one of the fastest spinning
00:34objects ever found.
00:35Only bested by Pulsar, PSR, J1748-2446AD, another neutron that spins at 730 rotations per second.
00:45Neutron stars are stellar bodies at the end of their lives, with their collapsed cores creating massively dense fast spinning
00:51objects.
00:51Those that become neutron stars are usually 1.1 to 2.3 times the mass of the Sun, but only
00:57around 12 miles across.
00:58And since 4U1820-30 orbits so close to its binary pair, with a joint orbit lasting only 11.4 minutes,
01:07the fast spinning star is likely siphoning material and getting even denser.
01:10When it gets too dense and hot, it will eventually release a burst of thermonuclear energy, becoming 100,000 times
01:17brighter than the Sun.
01:18Meaning it could soon be classified as the fastest spinning x-ray pulsar ever discovered.
01:24The sun is a star.
01:24The sun is a star.
01:30The sun is a star.
