Media Information
 
 
 
Collection:
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection
Title:
X-Ray Pulsar
Explanation:
This dramatic artist's vision shows a city-sized neutron star [ http://astro.uchica…] centered in a disk of hot plasma drawn from its enfeebled red companion star. Ravenously accreting material [ http://imagine.gsfc…] from the disk, the neutron star spins faster and faster [ http://universe.gsf…] emitting powerful particle beams and pulses of X-rays [ http://heasarc.gsfc…ASM/welcome.html ] as it rotates 400 times a second. Could such a bizarre and inhospitable star system really exist in our Universe [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]? Based on data from the orbiting Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer [ http://heasarc.gsfc…] (RXTE) satellite, research teams have recently announced a discovery [ http://universe.gsf…] which fits this exotic scenario well - a "millisecond" X-ray pulsar. The newly detected celestial X-ray beacon [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] has the unassuming catalog designation of SAX J1808.4-3658 and is located a comforting 12,000 light years away in the constellation Sagittarius [ http://www.astro.wi…constellations/Sagit tarius.html ]. Its X-ray pulses offer evidence of rapid, accretion powered [ http://imagine.gsfc…cool_binary_fact.htm l ] rotation and provide a much sought after connection between known types of radio and X-ray pulsars [ http://astrosun.tn.…] and the evolution [ http://astrosun.tn.…] and ultimate demise of binary star systems [ http://imagine.gsfc…].
Credit and Copyright:
W. Feimer (Allied Signal), GSFC [ http://www.gsfc.nas…], NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov/]
keyword:
x-ray
keyword:
neutron star
keyword:
pulsar
facet_where:
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
facet_where:
Washington, D.C.
facet_what:
Explorer
facet_what:
Sagittarius
facet_what:
Beacon
facet_what:
SAX
facet_what:
X-Ray Timing Explorer
original url:
http://antwrp.gsfc.…
UID:
SPD-APOD-ap980723

X-Ray Pulsar
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