Pulsar Crashing through a Ring of Gas

[robnissen]

Very interesting article out today about a pulsar that has been spotted going into and out of a ring of gas from its companion star. Here are a few interesting excerpts: <br /><br />"ESA astronomers have witnessed something very unusual; a pulsar crashing through a ring of gas surrounding a companion star. As the pulsar passed through ring, it lit up the area in gamma and X-rays, visible to ESA's XMM-Newton observatory. . . .<br /><br />It has revealed a remarkable new insight into the origin and content of 'pulsar winds', which has been a long-standing mystery. The scientists described the event as a natural but 'scaled-up' version of the well-known Deep Impact satellite collision with Comet Tempel 1. . . The pulsar plunges into the Be star's ring twice during its 3.4-year elliptical orbit; but the plunges are only a few months apart, just before and after 'periastron', the point when the two objects in orbit are closest to each other. It is during the plunges that X-rays and gamma rays are emitted, and XMM-Newton detects the X-rays. . .<br /><br />"For most of the 3.4-year orbit, both sources are relatively dim in X-rays and it is not possible to identify characteristics in the pulsar wind," said co-author Andrii Neronov. "As the two objects draw closer together, sparks begin to fly."<br /><br />The entire article:<br />http://internationalreporter.com/news/read.php?id=883<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />