In our solar system, the planets and their moons are known to revolve around the sun and also possess a rotation speed corresponding to their planetary mass. However, scientists have discovered some of the most unique celestial bodies in the universe where stars rotate at amazing speeds and emit massive amounts of radiation and energy.
Scientists from NASA's Kepler Space Telescope via the Kepler-Swift Active Galaxies and Stars Survey obtained new observations of these cosmic objects that spin so fast that they now possess "pumpkin like shapes".
Using data from Kepler's X-ray surveys and ultraviolet and optical observations from Swift, astronomers have found 18 very rare stars that appear to be plump and glowing orange, producing X-ray emissions at 100 times more powerful than the ones ejected by our sun on average.
According to Steve Howell of NASA's Ames Research Center in California, these 18 stars have a rotation of a few days on average as opposed to our sun that takes almost a month to rotate on its axis. This rapid rotation is an amplified version of the sun's solar activities, complete with sunspots and solar flares that are all on overdrive.
One of the most extremely powerful of these pumpkin stars is an orange giant K-type star known as KSw71. It is ten times bigger than the sun and takes only 5.5 days to complete a full rotation. Its X-ray emissions are so strong that it is estimated to be 4,000 more powerful than the sun's strongest X-rays.
This new study was published in the Astrophysical Journal.