Latest news with #pulsar
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA X-ray spacecraft reveals secrets of a powerful, spinning neutron star
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Astronomers have discovered that radiation emitted by a rapidly spinning neutron star, or "pulsar," is dominated by the impact of its powerful particle winds — and not by the material it strips from a companion star. The pulsar in question is PSR J1023+0038 (J1023), which sits in a binary system located 4,500 light-years away from Earth. This binary consists of a "dead star," or neutron star that spins around 600 times a second, as well as a low-mass star upon which the neutron star "feeds." The rapid spin of J1023 classifies it as a millisecond pulsar, but because it transitions clearly between an active state — during which it feeds and blasts out beams of radiation from its poles — and an inactive state, it is part of a rare subclass called "transitional millisecond pulsar." One of just three known transitional millisecond pulsars, J1023 is an invaluable target for astronomers. "Transitional millisecond pulsars are cosmic laboratories that help us understand how neutron stars evolve in binary systems," team leader and National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) researcher Maria Cristina Baglio said in a statement. "J1023 is a particularly valuable source of data because it clearly transitions between its active state, in which it feeds on its companion star, and a more dormant state, in which it behaves like a standard pulsar, emitting detectable radio waves." The matter this neutron star strips from its companion doesn't fall straight to the surface of the dead star, but instead forms a flattened cloud, or "accretion disk" around the star. As this disk swirls around the neutron star, gradually feeding it, it emits powerful radiation consisting of wavelengths across the electromagnetic spectrum. Thus, the team was able to examine J1023 using NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in northern Chile, and the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico, making this the first survey of binary X-ray source over the X-ray, optical and radio bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. "During the observations, the pulsar was in a low-luminosity active phase, characterized by rapid changes between different X-ray brightness levels," Baglio said. Assessing J1023 across three bands of the electromagnetic spectrum allowed the team to determine the polarization of radiation coming from this pulsar. Polarization refers to the orientation of light waves as they propagate. Of particular note was IXPE's observation that 12% of the X-rays from J1023 are polarized. That is the highest level of polarization ever seen from such a binary star system. The radio wave and optical light emissions showed lower polarizations of 2% and 1%, respectively. What was particularly interesting about the optical polarization was the fact that it was oriented in the same direction as the angle of X-ray polarization. This suggests a common mechanism behind the polarization of X-rays and the polarization of optical light. The findings confirm an earlier theory that suggested the observed polarized emissions from binary systems such as J1023 are generated when pulsars' winds, streams of high-energy charged particles flowing from these dead stars, strike the matter in the surrounding accretion disks. Related Stories: — New kind of pulsar may explain how mysterious 'black widow' systems evolve — Hear 'black widow' pulsar's song as it destroys companion —Astronomers discover origins of mysterious double hot Jupiter exoplanets: 'It is a dance of sorts' This research could finally help scientists understand what powers pulsars, and it wouldn't have been possible without the sensitivity of IXPE."This observation, given the low intensity of the X-ray flux, was extremely challenging, but the sensitivity of IXPE allowed us to confidently detect and measure this remarkable alignment between optical and X-ray polarization," team member and INAF researcher Alessandro Di Marco said. "This study represents an ingenious way to test theoretical scenarios thanks to polarimetric observations at multiple wavelengths." The team's research was published on July 1 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists find rare double-star system where one star orbited inside the other
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Astronomers may have discovered a rare type of binary star system, where one star used to orbit inside its partner. In the new study, astronomers investigated a pulsar known as PSR J1928+1815 located about 455 light-years from Earth. A pulsar is a kind of neutron star, a corpse of a large star that perished in a catastrophic explosion known as a supernova. The gravitational pull of the star's remains would have been strong enough to crush together protons and electrons to form neutrons, meaning a neutron star is mostly made of neutrons. That makes it very (very) dense. Pulsars are spinning neutron stars that emit twin beams of radio waves from their magnetic poles. These beams appear to pulse because astronomers see them only when a pulsar pole is pointed at Earth. The researchers estimate this particular pulsar was born from a hot blue star more than eight times the sun's mass. Using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) in China, the world's largest single-dish telescope, the astronomers discovered PSR J1928+1815 had a companion, a helium star with about 1 to 1.6 times the sun's mass. This star has lost most — or all — of its outer layers of hydrogen, leaving behind a core made up mostly of helium. These stars in this pair are currently only about 700,000 miles (1.12 million kilometers) apart, or about 50 times closer than Mercury is to the sun, study co-author Jin-Lan Han, chair of the radio astronomy division of the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, told They complete an orbit around each other in just 3.6 hours. PSR J1928+1815 is a millisecond pulsar, which means it whirls extraordinarily rapidly, spinning nearly 100 times a second. Millisecond pulsars typically reach these dizzying speeds as they cannibalize nearby companions — the inrushing material makes them gyrate faster and faster. Previous research suggested that, as millisecond pulsars feed on their partners, these binary systems may experience a "common envelope" phase, in which the pulsar orbits within the outer layers of its companion. However, scientists have never detected such exotic binaries — perhaps until now. Related Stories: — This astronomer found a sneaky extra star in James Webb Space Telescope data — Hubble Telescope sees wandering black hole slurping up stellar spaghetti — Giant young star is growing by 2 Jupiter masses every year, new study shows Using computer models, the researchers suggest the members of this newfound binary started at a distance from each other about twice that between Earth and the sun (185 million miles, or 299 million km), Han said. The pulsar would have then started siphoning off its companion's outer layers, forming a common envelope around them both. After roughly 1,000 years, the pulsar would have spiraled close to its partner's core, which likely flung away the last of this envelope, leaving behind a tightly bound binary system. Based on the estimated number of binary stars in the Milky Way that roughly match this newfound system, the researchers suggest only 16 to 84 counterparts of PSR J1928+1815 and its companion may exist in our galaxy. (For context, the Milky Way hosts about 100 billion to 400 billion stars.) The scientists detailed their findings online May 22 in the journal Science.
Gizmodo
22-05-2025
- Science
- Gizmodo
One Star Is Orbiting Inside Another in This Never-Before-Seen Binary System
For the first time, astronomers have spotted a rapidly spinning neutron star that is gravitationally bound to a helium star companion. The discovery of this unusual binary system helps confirm a long theorized—but rarely seen—cosmic process called common envelope evolution. Binary star systems, or pairs of stars that orbit around each other, are very common. In fact, it's estimated that 85% of stars in the universe have at least one companion. But this newly discovered pair is unlike any seen before. In this case, a helium star is bound to a millisecond pulsar: a fast-spinning neutron star that emits beams of radiation at regular intervals. These stars achieve their extraordinary rotation rates by siphoning matter from nearby stellar companions. In May 2020, a team of researchers led by Jin Lin Han, a radio astronomer at the National Astronomical Observatories and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, used China's FAST radio telescope to detect weak signals from a point deep within the Milky Way galaxy. A few months later, the researchers confirmed that these signals were radiation emissions from a pulsar. They then tracked these bursts for four and a half years, and their measurements revealed that this star isn't alone. It's actually part of a binary system, orbiting its companion every 3.6 hours. But for one-sixth of that orbit, the pulsar's radiation is blocked—or eclipsed—by its companion. 'That's a large part of the orbit,' Han told Gizmodo. 'That's strange, only a larger companion can do this.' In binary systems, a millisecond pulsar is usually accompanied by a white dwarf: a hot, dense core left behind after a star like our Sun has exhausted its fuel. But the data Han and his colleagues collected indicated that this companion had to lie somewhere in between a compact object and a normal star, he said. Further investigation of this strange companion revealed that it is roughly as massive as our Sun, but it couldn't be a normal star because it was undetectable in all wavelengths outside of the radio spectrum. This led the researchers to conclude that it's a star stripped clean of its hydrogen, leaving behind a core primarily composed of helium. They published their findings today in the journal Science. This type of binary system 'has never been discovered before,' Han said. But it has long been theorized that such a pairing could form via common envelope evolution, and he and his colleagues believe that's what happened here. 'The process of common envelope evolution is slightly different to how stars like pulsars are often thought to interact in binary systems,' Duncan Lorimer, a professor of physics and astronomy at West Virginia University who was not involved in the study, told Gizmodo in an email. Normally, a neutron star's intense gravitational field pulls material from a companion star that has expanded, allowing its gaseous outer layers to be 'eaten' by the neutron star, he explained. This process, called accretion, causes the neutron star to 'spin up' and become a pulsar. But in common envelope evolution, 'the companion star is so large that its outer layers engulf the neutron star as well,' Lorimer said. 'This acts as a brake on the whole binary system.' Inside the companion star's outer layers—the envelope—friction causes the pulsar and the companion's core to spiral toward each other, forming a highly compact binary system, like the one Han and his colleagues have now observed. With an orbital period of just 3.6 hours, this pulsar and its companion are circling each other very closely. Ultimately, the outer layers of the companion star are expelled, Lorimer said, which explains why this millisecond pulsar's helium star companion has been stripped. 'The evolutionary pathway that the authors set out, it's not a surprising pathway,' Victoria Kaspi, a professor of physics at McGill University who was not involved in the study, told Gizmodo. 'It's one that has been recognized, identified, discussed in detail for many years.' 'The interesting question is, if you're going to find 1,000 millisecond pulsars, what fraction of them will be like this one? It's about one in 1,000—something like that. And they found it,' she said. Han and his colleagues believe there are more than a dozen other systems like this one in our galaxy, making them exceptionally rare. The fact that these researchers found one of them is a 'great breakthrough,' Lorimer said. 'The more millisecond pulsars we find, the more likely we are to find examples of rare evolutionary outcomes. This system is an excellent example of that,' he said.
