The Hubble Space Telescope has caught a rapidly spinning neutron star in the act of gobbling up its partner, say NASA scientists.<\/p>\n
A so-called \"black widow\" star with a tightly orbiting stellar partner has been caught in act of consuming its companion by a NASA space telescope, scientists say. <\/p>\n
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The fast-spinning pulsar, known as PSRJ1311-3430 (J1311 for short), is part of a unique class of pulsars named for dangerous redback and black widow spiders that devour their cosmic mates. In time, the pulsar is expected to completely absorb its smaller companion star, a celestial partner that may have caused its characteristic quick spin. You can see avideo animation of the pulsar's deadly embrace here. <\/p>\n
\"The essential feature of black widow and redback binaries are that they place a normal but very low-mass star in close proximity to a millisecond pulsar, which has disastrous consequences for the star,\" Roger Romani, a member of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology in California, said in a statement. [The Star Quiz: Test Your Stellar Smarts] <\/p>\n
When a massive star explodes in a supernova, its leftover core can survive as a neutron star, an incredibly dense body that can pack the mass of the sun into a city-sized ball. Neutron stars that rotate a few thousand times per minute, sweeping a beam of radio, visible light, x-rays, and gamma rays like a light house are known aspulsars. Astronomers can detect the stream of emission when it points towards Earth in a brief pulse. <\/p>\n
But some pulsars rotate at a dazzling speeds, turning on their axis at least once every ten milliseconds, or a few thousand times a minute. Known as millisecond pulsars, more than half of these fast-spinning stars have companions, while their slower cousins tend to appear in isolation. The high companion rates suggest to scientists that interactions with a second star can accelerate the spin of a normal pulsar. <\/p>\n
In 2012, Romani was part of a team that used NASA'sFermi Gamma-ray Space Telescopeto characterize J1311 using only its gamma-ray emission. While Fermi frequently identifies gamma-ray sources, radio telescope follow-ups have been the key source of detection of the rapid pulsation that identifies the source as a millisecond pulsar, though slower pulsars are frequently identifiable by the telescope. <\/p>\n
The gamma-ray detection is key because many of the sedate pulsars are quiet in the radio spectrum, where the millisecond pulsars are frequently identified, potentially allowing numerous radio-quiet millisecond pulsars to pass by unnoticed. <\/p>\n
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Hubble spots 'black widow' pulsar devouring companion star<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Hubble Space Telescope has caught a rapidly spinning neutron star in the act of gobbling up its partner, say NASA scientists. Continue reading