NASA reports that scientists have discovered the first gamma-ray binary system of stars-LMC P3, out of the Milky Way Galaxy. This system is the most luminous ever observed. This system includes a massive star and a neutron star whose interaction creates a flood of gamma rays in their vicinity. Gamma rays are the highest form of energy produced by the electromagnetic spectrum. Only five binary systems of this type have been detected before and all of them in our own Milky Way Galaxy. This is the first time a binary system of this type has been found out of our galaxy.

LMC P3

This binary system is located 163,000 light years away from earth in the Large MagellanicCloud and lies at the center of an expanding cloud of gas and dust left over from a supernova explosion. The system consists of a hot massive star and a neutron star which orbit around each other every 19.3 days. This is the brightest binary system producing gamma rays, X-rays, visible light and radio waves. Binary systems often consist of a neutron star and a massive star or a black hole and a massive star and emit most of their energy in gamma rays.

How black holes and neutron stars form?

When a massive star has exhausted all of its fuel, it will start collapsing under its own weight by the force of its own gravity.

That force pushes all matter so dense that it forms a dense ball of neutrinos-neutron star, which is the size of a small city. If the force collapses even further, it then forms a black hole, which is a region in spacetime where no forms of electromagnetic radiation can escape from the inside of it due to its very strong gravitational effects.

It´s believed that in gamma-ray binary systems, the compacted companion produces accelerated particle electrons to nearly the speed of light. The ejected particles produce X-rays and radio waves which are detected more intensely when the crushed companion orbits the other star when it is closest to earth, while through a different process, the accelerated electrons colliding with light coming from other stars produces gamma rays which are only detected when the neutronstar travels on its orbit that is farther from view as seen from the earth.