The fact that a neutron star is home to such jets is not a surprise in and of itself. "We've seen jets coming from all types of neutrons stars that are pulling material from their companions," said lead author Jakob van den Eijnden of the University of Amsterdam in a press release. "[But] never before have we seen a jet coming from a neutron star with a very strong magnetic field."

According to current theory, neutron stars with extremely intense magnetic fields like SW J0243 should not be capable of producing such jets. Our working theories — backed by decades of observations — suggest that extremely strong magnetic fields should overpower and prevent the formation of jets around neutron stars. But according to van den Eijnden, "Our clear discovery of a jet in SW J0243 disproves that longstanding idea."





However, as the authors note in their paper, there is still much more work to be done. Before they are able to eliminate all other possible explanations for the apparent jets — which range from intense stellar winds to shock waves within the accretion disk — they need to gather more observational evidence to prove the jets really do exist.

But if their findings hold up, (or more jets are observed around other strongly magnetized neutron stars), according to co-author Nathalie Degenaar, "This discovery not only means we have to revise our ideas about jets from such systems, but also opens up exciting new areas of research."