{ "id": 11609, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11609/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "NASA's Fermi Catches a 'Transformer' Pulsar", "description": "In late June 2013, an exceptional binary system containing a rapidly spinning neutron star underwent a dramatic change in behavior never before observed. The pulsar's radio beacon vanished, while at the same time the system brightened fivefold in gamma rays, the most powerful form of light, according to measurements by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.The system, known as AY Sextantis, is located about 4,400 light-years away in the constellation Sextans. It pairs a 1.7-millisecond pulsar named PSR J1023+0038 — J1023 for short — with a star containing about one-fifth the mass of the sun. The stars complete an orbit in only 4.8 hours, which places them so close together that the pulsar will gradually evaporate its companion. To better understand J1023's spin and orbital evolution, the system was routinely monitored in radio. These observations revealed that the pulsar's radio signal had turned off and prompted the search for an associated change in its gamma-ray properties.What's happening, astronomers say, are the last sputtering throes of the pulsar spin-up process. Researchers regard the system as a unique laboratory for understanding how millisecond pulsars form and for studying details of how accretion takes place on neutron stars. In J1023, the stars are close enough that a stream of gas flows from the sun-like star toward the pulsar. The pulsar's rapid rotation and intense magnetic field are responsible for both the radio beam and its powerful pulsar wind. When the radio beam is detectable, the pulsar wind holds back the companion's gas stream, preventing it from approaching too closely. But now and then the stream surges, pushing its way closer to the pulsar and establishing an accretion disk. When gas from the disk falls to an altitude of about 50 miles (80 km), processes involved in creating the radio beam are either shut down or, more likely, obscured. Some of the gas may be accelerated outward at nearly the speed of light, forming dual particle jets firing in opposite directions. Shock waves within and along the periphery of these jets are a likely source of the bright gamma-ray emission detected by Fermi. || ", "release_date": "2014-07-22T10:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:50:44.050104-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 453317, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011600/a011609/transformerBinary_4196.jpg", "filename": "transformerBinary_4196.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Narrated video. Zoom into an artist's rendering of AY Sextantis, a binary star system whose pulsar switched from radio emissions to high-energy gamma rays in 2013. This transition likely means the pulsar's spin-up process is nearing its end.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.For complete transcript, click here.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 }, "main_video": { "id": 453316, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011600/a011609/11609_Transformer_Pulsar_MPEG4_1920x1080_29.97.mp4", "filename": "11609_Transformer_Pulsar_MPEG4_1920x1080_29.97.mp4", "media_type": "Movie", "alt_text": "Narrated video. Zoom into an artist's rendering of AY Sextantis, a binary star system whose pulsar switched from radio emissions to high-energy gamma rays in 2013. This transition likely means the pulsar's spin-up process is nearing its end.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.For complete transcript, click here.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 }, "main_credits": { "Visualizations by": [ { "name": "Cruz deWilde", "employer": "Avant Gravity" } ] }, "progress": "Complete", "media_groups": [ { "id": 344645, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11609/#media_group_344645", "widget": "Basic text with HTML", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "In late June 2013, an exceptional binary system containing a rapidly spinning neutron star underwent a dramatic change in behavior never before observed. The pulsar's radio beacon vanished, while at the same time the system brightened fivefold in gamma rays, the most powerful form of light, according to measurements by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.

The system, known as AY Sextantis, is located about 4,400 light-years away in the constellation Sextans. It pairs a 1.7-millisecond pulsar named PSR J1023+0038 — J1023 for short — with a star containing about one-fifth the mass of the sun. The stars complete an orbit in only 4.8 hours, which places them so close together that the pulsar will gradually evaporate its companion.

To better understand J1023's spin and orbital evolution, the system was routinely monitored in radio. These observations revealed that the pulsar's radio signal had turned off and prompted the search for an associated change in its gamma-ray properties.

What's happening, astronomers say, are the last sputtering throes of the pulsar spin-up process. Researchers regard the system as a unique laboratory for understanding how millisecond pulsars form and for studying details of how accretion takes place on neutron stars.

In J1023, the stars are close enough that a stream of gas flows from the sun-like star toward the pulsar. The pulsar's rapid rotation and intense magnetic field are responsible for both the radio beam and its powerful pulsar wind. When the radio beam is detectable, the pulsar wind holds back the companion's gas stream, preventing it from approaching too closely.

But now and then the stream surges, pushing its way closer to the pulsar and establishing an accretion disk. When gas from the disk falls to an altitude of about 50 miles (80 km), processes involved in creating the radio beam are either shut down or, more likely, obscured. Some of the gas may be accelerated outward at nearly the speed of light, forming dual particle jets firing in opposite directions. Shock waves within and along the periphery of these jets are a likely source of the bright gamma-ray emission detected by Fermi.", "items": [], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 344646, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11609/#media_group_344646", "widget": "Video player", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "Narrated video. Zoom into an artist's rendering of AY Sextantis, a binary star system whose pulsar switched from radio emissions to high-energy gamma rays in 2013. This transition likely means the pulsar's spin-up process is nearing its end.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.

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Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center", "width": 640, "height": 360, "pixels": 230400 } }, { "id": 304248, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 453354, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011600/a011609/Transformer_pulsar_gif_Still_2.png", "filename": "Transformer_pulsar_gif_Still_2.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "This animated gif of the artist's rendering shows one model of pulsar J1023 as its radio emission vanishes. When the companion's gas stream surges, the stronger flow pushes through the pulsar wind and establishes an accretion disk. This fuels the development of relativistic particle jets that produce gamma rays (magenta). 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Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center", "width": 320, "height": 180, "pixels": 57600 } }, { "id": 304247, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 453353, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011600/a011609/Transformer_Pulsar_2.webmhd.webm", "filename": "Transformer_Pulsar_2.webmhd.webm", "media_type": "Movie", "alt_text": "This animated gif of the artist's rendering shows one model of pulsar J1023 as its radio emission vanishes. When the companion's gas stream surges, the stronger flow pushes through the pulsar wind and establishes an accretion disk. This fuels the development of relativistic particle jets that produce gamma rays (magenta). 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In June 2013, the pulsar underwent a dramatic change in behavior never before observed. Its radio beacon vanished, while at the same time the system brightened significantly in gamma rays, the highest-energy form of light.The stellar system, known as AY Sextantis and located about 4,400 light-years away in the constellation Sextans, pairs a 1.7-millisecond pulsar named PSR J1023+0038 — J1023 for short — with a star containing about one-fifth the mass of the sun. The stars complete an orbit in only 4.8 hours, which places them so close together that a high-energy \"wind\" of charged particles from the pulsar is gradually evaporating its companion. What's happening, astronomers say, are the last sputtering throes of the pulsar spin-up process, where a flow of matter from the companion has, over millions of years, dramatically increased the pulsar's rotation. J1023 now spins at about 35,000 rpm, but the gas stream from the companion is no longer continuous. Researchers regard the system as a unique laboratory for understanding how millisecond pulsars form and for studying details of how accretion takes place on neutron stars. || ", "release_date": "2014-07-22T10:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:50:43.833061-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 454411, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011500/a011567/transformerBinary_v080_shot1_60fps.0484.jpg", "filename": "transformerBinary_v080_shot1_60fps.0484.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "This animation illustrates one possible model for the dramatic changes observed from J1023. The two stars of AY Sextantis orbit closely enough that a stream of gas flows from the sun-like star toward the pulsar. The pulsar's rapid rotation and intense magnetic field produce both the radio beam and the high-energy wind, which is eroding its companion. When the radio beam (green) is detectable, the pulsar wind holds back the companion's gas stream, preventing it from approaching too closely. Now and then the stream surges, reaches toward the pulsar and establishes an accretion disk. Processes involved in producing the radio beam are either shut down or, more likely, obscured. Meanwhile, some of the gas falling toward the pulsar may be accelerated outward at nearly the speed of light, forming dual particle jets firing in opposite directions. Shock waves within and along the periphery of these jets are a likely source of the bright gamma-ray emission (magenta) detected by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } }, { "id": 11216, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11216/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Black Widow Pulsars Consume Their Mates", "description": "Black widow spiders and their Australian cousins, known as redbacks, are notorious for an unsettling tendency to kill and devour their male partners. Astronomers have noted similar behavior among two rare breeds of binary system that contain rapidly spinning neutron stars, also known as pulsars. The essential features 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. Black widow systems contain stars that are both physically smaller and of much lower mass than those found in redbacks.So far, astronomers have found at least 18 black widows and nine redbacks within the Milky Way, and additional members of each class have been discovered within the dense globular star clusters that orbit our galaxy. One black widow system, named PSR J1311-3430 and discovered in 2012, sets the record for the tightest orbit of its class and contains one of the heaviest neutron stars known. The pulsar's featherweight companion, which is only a dozen or so times the mass of Jupiter and just 60 percent of its size, completes an orbit every 93 minutes – less time than it takes to watch most movies. The side of the star facing the pulsar is heated to more than 21,000 degrees Fahrenheit (nearly 12,000 C), or more than twice as hot as the sun's surface. Recent studies allow a range of values extending down to 2 solar masses for the pulsar, making it one of the most massive neutron stars known. Watch the video to learn more about this system and its discovery from some of the scientists involved. || ", "release_date": "2014-02-20T11:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:51:11.083946-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 467661, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011200/a011216/Cruz_deWilde-bwPulsar_pulsarCam.00300.jpg", "filename": "Cruz_deWilde-bwPulsar_pulsarCam.00300.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Learn how astronomers discovered PSR J1311−3430, a record-breaking black widow binary and the first of its kind discovered solely through gamma-ray observations. Greenbank Telescope image credit: NRAO/AUIWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.For complete transcript, click here.", "width": 1280, "height": 720, "pixels": 921600 } }, { "id": 10144, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10144/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Millisecond Pulsar with Magnetic Field Structure", "description": "A pulsar is a rapidly rotating neutron star that emits pulses of radiation (such as X-rays and radio waves) at regular intervals. A millisecond pulsar is one with a rotational period between 1 and 10 milliseconds, or from 60,000 to 6,000 revolutions per minute. Pulsars form in supernova explosions, but even newborn pulsars don’t spin at millisecond speeds, and they gradually slow down with age. If, however, a pulsar is a member of a binary system with a normal star, gas transferred from the companion can spin up an old, slow pulsar to the millisecond range. || ", "release_date": "2007-07-03T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:55:40.565321-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 508319, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010100/a010144/PulsarCU1300.jpg", "filename": "PulsarCU1300.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "This animation zooms into a neutron star and its accretion disk to show a millisecond pulsar in close-up.", "width": 1280, "height": 720, "pixels": 921600 } } ], "sources": [], "products": [], "newer_versions": [], "older_versions": [], "alternate_versions": [] }