“China’s Heavenly Eye helps Chinese and foreign scientists find the ‘birth certificate’ of lost neutron stars”
2026-09-07 08:00Products & Apps🔥 42.2 heat score
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On September 7, the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Astronomical Observatories, in collaboration with a team from Tsinghua University, used telescopes such as “FAST” to identify a pulsar in the tidal tail of the open star cluster NGC 6791. This study reconstructs the process by which low-“kick velocity” neutron stars enter the Milky Way disk as the star cluster disintegrates, confirming that ancient massive open star clusters can preserve difficult-to-observe neutron stars for a long time and release them into the galactic disk during disintegration. Previously, astronomers had never directly observed a neutron star entering the Milky Way disk from a born star cluster; this discovery fills the gap in observational evidence regarding the origin of neutron stars and their evolutionary history.
China's Heavenly EyeFASTNational Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of SciencesTsinghua UniversityZijinshan Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Zijinshan Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences1
National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences1
On September 7, the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Astronomical Observatories, and Tsinghua University jointly announced their findings. The team used telescopes such as “FAST” to identify a pulsar in the “tidal tails” of the open star cluster NGC 6791, revealing the process by which low-“kick velocity” neutron stars were released into the Milky Way disk as the star cluster disintegrated. This research was published in the journal Science Bulletin, confirming that ancient massive open star clusters can long preserve hard-to-observed neutron stars and release them into the galactic disk during disintegration. Previously, astronomers had never directly observed a neutron star entering the Milky Way disk from a born star cluster; this discovery fills the gap in observational evidence regarding the origin of neutron stars and their evolution.