Fastest Spinning Star Seen in Cosmos

That's a remarkable speed for a stellar body. I wonder what relativistic effects occur at the surface when a star spins that quickly.

They're only about 20 miles in diameter (max) so that gives a surface speed of only 70,000 miles an hour.

Woops that's miles per second: sorry!

So that is about 1/3 c if I'm doing my calculation right. How did you determine that diameter?

http://www.astronomynotes.com/evolutn/s12.htm

That was a typical one I think. Other sites seem to say more like 10 to 20 Km. The one in question is probably smaller (because of its density). Yanthram at post #4 has 6 miles, but I can't see it in the article.

Either way I don't fancy going there to experience the relativistic effect.

The original article does say the object is six miles wide. This is small indeed for an object of 3 or 4 solar mass. However the surface speed is not relativistic. At 1200 RPS the speed is only some 36000 km/hr or 23000 mph. The tremendous gravitational field would of course cause relativistic effects.

Am I missing something: I still make that 81 million mph just under an eighth the speed of light.

6 * pi * 1200 * 60 * 60

Sorry: you are right. My figures are for per second not per hour. So it is indeed a very special star. However my main point was that it could have been speeded up by processes other than collapse and conservation of momentum requirement. I don't know if the nuclear forces are capable of holding such a body together against the tremendous centrifugal force.

I have only a very general knowledge about neutron stars. However the premise that the star is something more than an ordinary neutron star because of its spin rate assumes that the high speed is just caused by the collapse of a larger object and the need to account for the conservation of angular momentum. I seem to recall (a theory I read about some time back) that a neutron star can be speeded up by the acretion of matter falling on to it from a companion star bloated to a red giant stage. So does it have to be some even more exotic form of matter? How do they know that the object is just 6 miles across, I wonder? Is it the broadening of spectral lines giving a clue to the surface speed? 6miles or some 10 km does make it a small object. Perhaps it is this which points to something denser than neutrons.

At the end of the article, it says...

"Kaaret is quick to point out, however, that the extraordinary speed he and his colleagues might have detected — like any extraordinary claim — requires a lot more data before it can be confirmed.

"The evidence for the timing is not gold-plated," cautioned Kaaret."

So all this is nothing but the astronomers jumping to conclusions to drawing attention to themselves, stiring up contraversy and perhaps to lure public officials into increasing their project funding out of sheer curiosity. Pretty good hussle! lol