Scientists have detected a double neutron star system with the widest orbit of any such system detected to date. The discovery began with the detection of a pulsar by two high school students using data from the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT).

Pulsars, rapidly spinning neutron stars left over from the explosions of supernovae are rare in binary star systems. The energy released during the stars explosion usually breaks the gravitational lock with the other star.

“Pulsars are some of the most extreme objects in the universe. The students’ discovery shows one of these objects in a really unique set of circumstances,” said Joe Swiggum, a graduate student in physics and astronomy at West Virginia University in Morgantown and lead author on a paper accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal in a statement.

About 10 percent of pulsars are in binary systems, but most of these orbit white dwarves. Only a handful are known to orbit neutron stars or younger stars like our sun.

The pulsar PSR J1930-1852, was first detected in 2012 by Cecilia McGough, who was a student at Strasburg High School in Virginia at the time, and De’Shang Ray, who was a student at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Baltimore, Maryland.

The students were participating in a National Science Foundation (NSF) summer workshop that invites interested high school students to analyze pulsar survey data from the GBT. Students who successfully locate pulsars are then invited to work with the astronomers at Green Bank to confirm their finds.

Based on the students finds and follow up observations the astronomers in this case determined that the new pulsar is part of a binary system but could not, initially, find its companion.

“Given the lack of any visible signals and the careful review of the timing of the pulsar, we concluded that the most likely companion was another neutron star,” said Swiggum.

Further analysis determined that the distance between the stars was the widest of any known double neutron system.

Most double neutron systems are so close that their entire orbit would fit into an area the size of our sun, making a full orbit every 24 hours. In this case the stars are about 32 million miles apart, roughly the distance between the Sun and Mercury. The stars orbit each other roughly once every 45 days.

“Its orbit is more than twice as large as that of any previously known double neutron star system. The pulsar’s parameters give us valuable clues about how a system like this could have formed. Discoveries of outlier systems like J1930-1852 give us a clearer picture of the full range of possibilities in binary evolution,” said Swiggum.

As for the students, they are both out of high school now and still pursuing science.

“This experience taught me that you do not have to be an ‘Einstein’ to be good at science. What you have to be is focused, passionate, and dedicated to your work,” said McGough, who is now a Schreyer Honors College scholar at Penn State University in State College majoring in astronomy and astrophysics and physics.

“As we look up into the sky and study the universe, we try to understand what’s out there. This experience has helped me to explore, to imagine, and to dream what could be and what we haven’t seen,” said Ray, currently a student at the Community College of Baltimore County studying biology, engineering, and emergency medical services.