Scientists from the ESA XMM-Newton space observatory discovered a faint neutron star outburst emitting X-ray flares nearly 10,000 times its normal brightness.
Researchers believe it was hit by a clump of gas from its nearby blue giant companion star, and the neutron star has attempted to absorb this matter.
“This remarkable result highlights XMM-Newton’s unique capabilities,” said Norbert Schartel, XMM-Newton Project Scientist, in a press release. “Its observations indicate that these flares can be linked to the neutron star attempting to ingest a giant clump of matter.”
“This was a huge bullet of gas that the star shot out, and it hit the neutron star allowing us to see it,” added research leader Enrico Bozzo from Switzerland’s ISDC Data Center for Astrophysics in the release. 
Animated Image from ESA/AOES Medialab
Neutron stars are the core remaining after a bigger star collapses, making them extremely dense with a strong gravitational field.
The neutron star burst was discovered during a 12.5 hour observation of the system catalogued as IGR J18410-0535. The X-ray flare lasted for four hours as the clump of gas heated to millions of degrees while being pulled into the neutron star’s gravity field.
Due to the telescope’s planned sequence of tasks, it took about 10 days before the team received the data and discovered the event, which was captured from beginning to end.
“I don’t know if there is any way to measure luck, but we were extremely lucky,” said Bozzo. He believes an X-ray flare like this happens a few times a year maximum in this particular star system.
Due to seeing the whole process, the scientists could estimate the size of the gas clump—approximately 16 million kilometers across, equivalent to 100 billion times the volume of the moon, but with only a thousandth of the moon’s mass, making it much bigger than the neutron star.
The event helps scientists understand the blue supergiant’s behavior and how it emits matter into space. Stars create stellar winds when they emit atoms into space. The data provided by the telescope showed that this star does so in clumps.
