An international team of scientists has found the first gamma-ray binary in a nearby galaxy and the most luminous one ever seen, using data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.
The dual-star system, dubbed LMC P3, contains a massive star and a crushed stellar core that interact to produce a cyclic flood of gamma rays, the highest-energy form of light.
"Fermi has detected only five of these systems in our own galaxy, so finding one so luminous and distant is quite exciting," said lead researcher Robin Corbet at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in the US.
"Gamma-ray binaries are prized because the gamma-ray output changes significantly during each orbit and sometimes over longer time scales," said Corbet.
These rare systems contain either a neutron star or a black hole and radiate most of their energy in the form of gamma rays.
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