{"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\/fr\/cannibal_star_eats_companion\/","title":{"rendered":"Une \u00e9toile cannibale d\u00e9vore son compagnon"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"lede\">\n<p>L'observatoire spatial Integral de l'ESA vient de d\u00e9couvrir, pour la premi\u00e8re fois, une \u00e9toile en rotation rapide en train d'avaler sa voisine, plus petite.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>L'\u00e9toile en rotation n'est pas une \u00e9toile ordinaire. \u00c0 l'origine au moins huit fois plus massive que le soleil, elle s'est affaiss\u00e9e en une \u00e9toile \u00e0 neutrons extr\u00eamement dense de seulement 20 km de diam\u00e8tre. Une cuill\u00e8re \u00e0 caf\u00e9 de sa mati\u00e8re p\u00e8serait environ un milliard de tonnes.<\/p>\n<p>Bien que trop petite pour la voir \u00e0 l'aide d'un t\u00e9lescope ordinaire, l'\u00e9toile \u00e0 neutrons peut \u00eatre observ\u00e9e aux rayons X. Elle a \u00e9t\u00e9 d\u00e9couverte par Integral lors d'une observation de routine du ciel le 2 d\u00e9cembre 2004, lorsque celle-ci a soudainement \u00e9mis un puissant flash de rayonnements 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>Animation montrant un pulsar ' absorbant ' de la mati\u00e8re provenant de son \u00e9toile compagnon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Les mesures effectu\u00e9es par Integral et par le satellite \u2018 Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer \u2019 de la NASA montrent que cette \u00e9toile \u00ab cannibale \u00bb est un \u00ab pulsar \u00bb, c'est-\u00e0-dire une \u00e9toile \u00e0 neutrons en rotation rapide. Il s'agit en effet de l'un des pulsars tournant le plus vite jamais d\u00e9couverts. Actuellement, elle tourne \u00e0 une vitesse vertigineuse \u2013 environ 600 tours par seconde \u2013 et acc\u00e9l\u00e8re progressivement.<\/p>\n<p>Ce processus d'acc\u00e9l\u00e9ration de la rotation survient lorsque le gaz arrach\u00e9 du compagnon s'\u00e9crase sur la surface. Cet incroyable approvisionnement s'\u00e9chauffe jusqu'\u00e0 une temp\u00e9rature avoisinant le milliard de degr\u00e9s, lib\u00e9rant d'\u00e9normes quantit\u00e9s de rayonnements X et gamma.<\/p>\n<p>Pendant ce temps, le compagnon s'est d\u00e9j\u00e0 r\u00e9duit \u00e0 une fraction de la taille de notre soleil, probablement aussi petit que 40 fois la masse de Jupiter. Les deux \u00e9toiles sont si proches qu'elles pourraient tenir dans le rayon du soleil. Pour survivre, le voisin en cours de r\u00e9tr\u00e9cissement d\u00e9crit une orbite autour de son \u00e9toile \u00e0 neutrons voisine en seulement 2,5 heures.<\/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\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=971"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4764,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971\/revisions\/4764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=971"},{"taxonomy":"panel","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/panel?post=971"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=971"},{"taxonomy":"age","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/age?post=971"},{"taxonomy":"duration","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/duration?post=971"},{"taxonomy":"resource_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_type?post=971"},{"taxonomy":"audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/audience?post=971"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kids.esa.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}