Latest Neutron star Stories

Minneapolis, Minn. -- Astronomers have uncovered tantalizing insights into the origin of short gamma-ray bursts "“ mysterious, split-second high-energy flashes that have eluded detailed study until now. Unlike their long-duration cousins, which are known to arise when massive young stars die, short bursts are thought to occur when old, dense neutron stars collide. New evidence supports this distinct progenitor population, heralding the opening of a new chapter in the study of nature's most...

NASA -- For the first time an X-ray image of a pair of interacting stars has been made by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The ability to distinguish between the interacting stars - one a highly evolved giant star and the other likely a white dwarf - allowed a team of scientists to observe an X-ray outburst from the giant star and find evidence that a bridge of hot matter is streaming between the two stars. "Before this observation it was assumed that all the X-rays came from a hot disk...

ESA -- Thanks to data from ESA's XMM-Newton spacecraft, European astronomers have observed for the first time rotating "˜hot spots' on the surfaces of three nearby neutron stars. This result provides a breakthrough in understanding the "˜thermal geography' of neutron stars, and provides the first measurement of very small-sized features on objects hundreds to thousands light-years away. The spots vary in size from that of a football field to that of a golf course. Neutron stars are...

Chandra -- Two scientists have discovered a distinctive shell of hot gas around the site of a distant supernova explosion by combining 150 hours of archived data collected by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. This discovery is a significant step forward in solving a decades-old puzzle as to why some stellar explosions display shells and others do not. "The likely answer is that the explosion of every massive star sends a sonic boom rumbling through interstellar space," said Samar...

NASA -- Scientists have detected a flash of light from across the Galaxy so powerful that it bounced off the Moon and lit up the Earth's upper atmosphere. The flash was brighter than anything ever detected from beyond our Solar System and lasted over a tenth of a second. NASA and European satellites and many radio telescopes detected the flash and its aftermath on December 27, 2004. Two science teams report about this event at a special press event today at NASA headquarters. A multitude of...

Cambridge, MA -- Astronomy is a science of extremes--the biggest, the hottest, and the most massive. Today, astrophysicist Bryan Gaensler (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) and colleagues announced that they have linked two of astronomy's extremes, showing that some of the biggest stars in the cosmos become the strongest magnets when they die. "The source of these very powerful magnetic objects has been a mystery since the first one was discovered in 1998. Now, we think we...

RAS -- A study of the first double-pulsar binary system to be discovered shows that magnetic interactions between the pulsars are strikingly similar to those between the Sun and the Earth.Radiation and particles emitted from one pulsar appear to have a similar warping effect on the magnetic bubble surrounding its companion star as the solar wind has on the Earth's magnetosphere.The pulsar pair was discovered in 2003 by an international team of scientists, including astronomers from Jodrell...

San Diego, CA -- The center of our galaxy is hidden behind a "brick wall" of obscuring dust so thick that not even the Hubble Space Telescope can penetrate it. Astronomers Silas Laycock and Josh Grindlay (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) and colleagues have lifted that veil to reveal a beautiful vista swarming with stars. Moreover, their hunt for specific stars associated with X-ray-emitting sources has ruled out one of two options for the nature of these X-ray sources:...

Chandra -- A swarm of 10,000 or more black holes may be orbiting the Milky Way's supermassive black hole, according to new results from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. This would represent the highest concentration of black holes anywhere in the Galaxy. These relatively small, stellar-mass black holes, along with neutron stars, appear to have migrated into the Galactic Center over the course of several billion years. Such a dense stellar graveyard has been predicted for years, and this...

Chandra -- A long look at a young pulsar with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory revealed unexpectedly rapid cooling, which suggests that it contains much denser matter than previously expected. The pulsar's cool temperature and the vast magnetic web of high-energy particles that surrounds it have implications for the theory of nuclear matter and the origin of magnetic fields in cosmic objects.An international team of scientists used the Chandra data to measure the temperature of the pulsar at...