Astronomers Spot Tiny Star Being Pounded by Billion-Ton Asteroid

Astronomers have gathered evidence that a tiny star, while is 37,000 light years away from Earth, is being pounded by asteroids.

Scientists using Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CISRO) Parkes telescope and another one based in South Africa, have found that a pulsar dubbed PSR J0738-404 is being hit by large chunks of rocks from space.

According to CSIRO astronomer and researcher Dr Ryan Shannon, one of the rocks that hit the tiny star had a mass of about a billion tonnes. The star is located in the constellation of Puppis

The environment surrounding the pulsar is extremely harsh with high levels of radiation and strong winds of particles, according to the news release. As this star spins, it throws radio beams at Earth.

"If a large rocky object can form here, planets could form around any star. That's exciting," Dr Shannon said.

In the year 2008, Dr Shannon along with the colleagues predicted how the asteroid would affect the pulsar. They said the asteroid would alter the spin rate of the pulsar by slowing it and also the shape of the radio pulse flashed on Earth.  This is visible in the case of PSR J0738-4042.

"We think the pulsar's radio beam zaps the asteroid, vaporising it. But the vaporised particles are electrically charged and they slightly alter the process that creates the pulsar's beam," said Dr Shannon.

The team believes that the asteroid present around the pulsar is formed by the exploding star that created the pulsar itself. The materials emitted during the explosion descent towards the newly forming pulsar, and form a disk of debris. One such disk was seen around another pulsar dubbed J0146+61.

"This sort of dust disk could provide the 'seeds' that grow into larger asteroids," said Mr Paul Brook, a PhD student co-supervised by the University of Oxford.

Back in 1992, two planet sized objects were seen around the pulsar PSR 1257+12 but they believe a different mechanism would explain that observation.

This study is documented in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.