Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here. Given the vastness of the
Speaker 1: universe and the few short millennia that humans have been
Speaker 1: gazing star ward, it's no surprise that we're still discovering
Speaker 1: how things work out there. One good example of this
Speaker 1: ongoing process is the cosmic cow, which is the unofficial
Speaker 1: name affectionately used by astronomers to refer to a t
Speaker 1: cow or cow an unexplained X ray phenomenon that occurred
Speaker 1: in the name was procedurally generated. The letters ceow just
Speaker 1: happened to come together, but it's pretty cute. Today, researchers
Speaker 1: have a strong hypothesis to explain the cosmic cow and
Speaker 1: guide future research into black holes, neutron stars, and other
Speaker 1: as yet unexplained events in the farthest reaches of the universe.
Speaker 1: To understand why the cosmic cow caut us ronomers, attention,
Speaker 1: let's talk about the life cycle of stars, including star death.
Speaker 1: Of course, there's a whole range of star types and sizes,
Speaker 1: which means there's no normal way for stars to die,
Speaker 1: and even dying isn't an accurate word, as stars simply
Speaker 1: move from one phase of life to another. In any case,
Speaker 1: it's broadly accurate to say that when most massive stars,
Speaker 1: that is, stars much larger than our Sun, reached the
Speaker 1: end of their life cycle and have consumed all of
Speaker 1: the fuel within their cores, they explode in a supernova
Speaker 1: and then become either a black hole or a neutron star,
Speaker 1: but depending on the star's original size. Astronomers have been
Speaker 1: measuring supernovas for a long time. The first possible recorded
Speaker 1: supernova dates back to Indian astronomers records around four thousand,
Speaker 1: five hundred BC plus remind us about a thousand years.
Speaker 1: Since then, there have been many notable supernovas, including one
Speaker 1: recorded by Chinese astronomers in one eight five C and
Speaker 1: another by Johanna's Kepler and many other astronomers across the
Speaker 1: globe in sixteen o four, plus dozens more recently, thanks
Speaker 1: to advancements in telescope science, so astronomers generally understand what
Speaker 1: they're seeing when a particularly bright emission appears in the sky.
Speaker 1: That's what was so baffling about this so called cosmic
Speaker 1: cow when astronomers first observed it in June of astronomers
Speaker 1: using a telescope at Helic Club Observatory in Hawaii noticed
Speaker 1: the bright X ray emission, which persisted for three weeks
Speaker 1: and glowed ten times more brightly than supernovas that astronomers
Speaker 1: had previously studied. Only now years later do we have
Speaker 1: a sense of what may have caused this bright emission,
Speaker 1: A bouncing bundle of joy for the universe in the
Speaker 1: form of either a newborn black hole or neutron star.
Speaker 1: Astronomers at m I T, led by research scientist dear
Speaker 1: Rage DJ Pashum at the Covley Institute for Astrophysics and
Speaker 1: Space Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, studied the emissions from the
Speaker 1: cow for several months and published their findings in the
Speaker 1: journal Nature Astronomy in December. They determined it's likely the
Speaker 1: result of a massive energy output caused by a black
Speaker 1: hole or neutron star enjoying its first meal of its
Speaker 1: origin star. Unlike other supernovas, the energy emitted by the
Speaker 1: Cow occurred a bit differently, hence the bright, long lasting
Speaker 1: glow observed in the sky. Given the unique data his
Speaker 1: team was studying, Pashum admitted he was hoping that the
Speaker 1: explanation would point to a black hole eating an exotic star.
Speaker 1: He told Science News. I was a little bit disappointed,
Speaker 1: but I'm more blown away that this could be direct
Speaker 1: evidence of the birth of a black hole. This is
Speaker 1: an even cooler result. The results of this m I
Speaker 1: T study suggest that astrophysicists might use a similar protocol
Speaker 1: to examine the data from other unexplained origin phenomena, for example,
Speaker 1: fast blue optical transient phenomen enough. There are about a
Speaker 1: dozen of these that have been recorded, and astronomers may
Speaker 1: now be able to come up with new hypotheses to
Speaker 1: explain these events which happened in the distant reaches of
Speaker 1: the universe. Additionally, the cosmic cow now gives astronomers a
Speaker 1: guide when it comes to looking for new neutron stars
Speaker 1: and baby black holes. Studying black holes is a big
Speaker 1: priority for NASA right now, and it's always good to
Speaker 1: have a better idea of what to look for and
Speaker 1: to gain a better understanding of the life cycle. If
Speaker 1: you want to keep an eye on black holes to
Speaker 1: look into the Imaging X ray polar Imatry Explorer, which
Speaker 1: NASA launched in December, and the Chandra X ray Observatory.
Speaker 1: These two space telescopes are gazing across the vast reaches
Speaker 1: of our galaxy and universe to measure the X ray
Speaker 1: emissions of typical black holes, though, as we're learning, there
Speaker 1: are a typical black holes too m HM. Today's episode
Speaker 1: is based on the article what is a Cosmic Cow?
Speaker 1: On how stuff Works dot Com written by Valerie Stymond.
Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership
Speaker 1: with how stuff Works dot Com and is produced by
Speaker 1: Tyler Clang and Ramsay Young. Four more podcasts from my
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