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The neutron star created a hole in the gas disk of its companion star.
Thanks to the highly advanced technological means of investigation, NASA’s Chandra discovers pulsar within double star system. The first images of the newly discovered neutron star indicate that the celestial body is incredibly fast and violent with the other stars in the system.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced on early Friday morning that the first images of an extremely violent pulsar have been captured for the first time. The neutron star has been estimated at approximately 7,500 light years away from the Earth.
The location of the neutron star has been determined with the help of NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, which has also estimated that the pulsar belongs to the star system called B1259.
Disk fragments coming from the pulsar have been later on observed. Scientists have calculated their traveling speeds and they have reached the conclusion that the pulsar is extremely violent because it sends disk fragments into the space with the speed of 6.4 million kilometers per hour.
Its speed, however, is not constant at all, researchers have further added. On the contrary, the comparison between the images that NASA has captured at different time intervals has revealed that the pulsar was initially traveling with 7% the speed of light, whereas latter pictures showed that the speed increased to 15% the speed of light.
By looking at the double star system where the pulsar resides, scientists discovered the presence of a Sun-like star that is three times bigger than our very own Sun. In spite of its large dimensions, the solar star of the system B1259 has been seriously troubled by the nearby presence of the pulsar. The latter created a visible hole in its companion’s gas disk as it passed by it, space experts have explained.
Pulsars are neutron stars, which derive from the supernova massive explosions of dying stars. Although neutron stars constitute a distinct category of celestial bodies, they can nevertheless have a very unique and unpredictable behavior in space; hence, scientists’ interest in the study of their evolution.
The future researches that NASA’s experts will carry out will aim to determine the evolution of the neutron star in relation to its double star system and its neighboring stars.
The findings of the current study have been published in the Astrophysical journal.
Image source: www.nasa.gov
