Cosmic fireworks from a neutron star shed light on an old black hole mystery

An international science team including UvA/API researcher Nathalie Degenaar found a neutron star that captures matter from a companion star through a violent and unstable process that was previously observed only in extreme black holes. The discovery that a neutron star shows the same behavior reveals that the regarded instability is actually a fundamental physical process. The study is published in the journal Nature.