{"id":971,"date":"2005-09-09T08:18:00","date_gmt":"2005-09-09T06:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/cannibal_star_eats_companion\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T00:34:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T22:34:22","slug":"cannibal_star_eats_companion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/cannibal_star_eats_companion\/","title":{"rendered":"Una estrella can\u00edbal se traga a su compa\u00f1era"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"lede\">\n<p>El observatorio espacial Integral de la ESA ha realizado su primer descubrimiento de una estrella que gira a alt\u00edsima velocidad mientras devora a otra estrella vecina m\u00e1s peque\u00f1a.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>La estrella que gira no es un astro cualquiera. Con una masa original de al menos ocho veces la del sol, se ha convertido en una estrella de neutrones superdensa de tan s\u00f3lo 20 km de di\u00e1metro. Una cucharadita de este material pesar\u00eda un bill\u00f3n de toneladas.<\/p>\n<p>Su peque\u00f1o tama\u00f1o impide que pueda verse con telescopios normales, aunque es posible ver la estrella de neutrones en el espectro de los rayos X. Integral realiz\u00f3 el descubrimiento durante una exploraci\u00f3n rutinaria del cielo el 2 de diciembre de 2004, al detectar una potente emisi\u00f3n repentina de rayos X.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-natural\" data-width=\"400\" data-credit=\"NASA\/Dana Berry\" data-detail-url=\"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/ESA_Multimedia\/Images\/2005\/08\/Animation_of_a_pulsar_eating_material_from_companion_star2\" data-licence=\"ESA Standard Licence\" data-licence-url=\"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/ESA_Multimedia\/Terms_and_conditions_of_use_of_images_and_videos_available_on_the_esa_website\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"max-width:100%;height:auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/var\/esa\/storage\/images\/esa_multimedia\/images\/2005\/08\/animation_of_a_pulsar_eating_material_from_companion_star2\/17903491-2-eng-GB\/Animation_of_a_pulsar_eating_material_from_companion_star.jpg\" alt=\"Animation of a pulsar &#x27;eating&#x27; material from companion star\"><figcaption>Animaci\u00f3n de un p\u00falsar 'aliment\u00e1ndose' de materia procedente de su estrella compa\u00f1era<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Las mediciones realizadas por Integral y la nave espacial Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer de la NASA revelan que la estrella \u2018can\u00edbal\u2019 es un \u00abpulsar\u00bb, es decir, una estrella de neutrones que gira r\u00e1pidamente. De hecho, es uno de los pulsares que giran m\u00e1s r\u00e1pido que se han encontrado jam\u00e1s. En la actualidad gira a una velocidad vertiginosa \u2014unas 600 vueltas por segundo\u2014 y poco a poco va acelerando a\u00fan m\u00e1s.<\/p>\n<p>El proceso de rotaci\u00f3n se produce cuando el gas arrancado a la estrella compa\u00f1era choca contra la superficie. Esta actividad genera una temperatura de casi un bill\u00f3n de grados y libera una gran cantidad de rayos X y rayos gamma.<\/p>\n<p>Durante este proceso la estrella compa\u00f1era se ha encogido hasta alcanzar un tama\u00f1o mucho menor que el de nuestro Sol, posiblemente unas 40 veces la masa de J\u00fapiter. Las dos estrellas est\u00e1n tan cerca que podr\u00edan ocupar el radio del Sol. Para poder sobrevivir, la estrella vecina gira alrededor de la estrella de neutrones en tan s\u00f3lo 2,5 horas.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ESA\u2019s Integral space observatory has made its first discovery of a fast-spinning star that is swallowing its smaller neighbour. The star in a spin is no ordinary star. Originally at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"esa_banner_image":"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/var\/esa\/storage\/images\/esa_multimedia\/images\/2005\/08\/artist_s_impression_of_a_pulsar_eating_a_companion_star2\/17883880-2-eng-GB\/Artist_s_impression_of_a_pulsar_eating_a_companion_star.jpg","esa_banner_description":"Artist's impression of a pulsar 'eating' a companion star","esa_banner_credit":"NASA\/Dana Berry","esa_banner_licence":"ESA Standard Licence","esa_banner_detail_url":"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/ESA_Multimedia\/Images\/2005\/08\/Artist_s_impression_of_a_pulsar_eating_a_companion_star2","esa_external_url":"","esa_external_new_window":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":true},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"panel":[],"language":[],"age":[],"duration":[],"resource_type":[],"audience":[],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=971"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4764,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971\/revisions\/4764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=971"},{"taxonomy":"panel","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/panel?post=971"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=971"},{"taxonomy":"age","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/age?post=971"},{"taxonomy":"duration","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/duration?post=971"},{"taxonomy":"resource_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_type?post=971"},{"taxonomy":"audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/audience?post=971"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}