NASA’s IXPE Imager Reveals Mysteries of Rare Pulsar
An international team of astronomers has revealed new evidence to explain how the pulsating remains of the exploded stars interact with the surrounding material deep in the cosmos, using observations from the IXPE of NASA (Imagery Explorer of Polemmetry of X -rays) and other telescopes.
Scientists based in the United States, Italy and Spain, set its sights on a mysterious cosmic duo called PSR J1023 + 0038, or J1023 to make it short. The J1023 system is made up of a quick -rotating neutron star feeding on its low -mass companion star, which has created an accretion disc around the neutron star. This neutron star is also a pulsar, emitting powerful twin light beams from its opposite magnetic posts when it turns, turning like a headlight tag.
The J1023 system is rare and precious to study because the pulsar transitions clearly between its active state, in which it feeds on its star companion and a more dormant state, when it emits detectable pulsations as radio waves. This makes it a “pulsar in transitional milliseconds”.
“The pulsars of the Milliseconde de Transition are cosmic laboratories, helping us to understand how neutron stars evolve in binary systems,” said researcher Maria Cristina Baglio of the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) Brera Observatory in Merate, Italy, and the main author of a document in document in document in document Astrophysical newspaper letters illustrating the new discoveries.
The big question for scientists on this pulsar system was: Where do the X -rays come from? The answer would inform wider theories about the acceleration of particles, the physics of accretion and the environments surrounding the neutron stars through the universe.
The source surprised them: X -rays came from the pulsar wind, a chaotic gas stew, shock waves, magnetic fields and accelerated particles near the speed of light, which strikes the accretion disc.
To determine this, astronomers needed to measure the polarization angle in radiography and optical light. Polarization is a measure of how light waves are organized. They looked at the polarization of X -rays with IXPE, the only telescope capable of making this measurement in space and comparing it to the optical polarization of the very large telescope of the Southern European Observatory in Chile. IXPE was launched in December 2021 and made numerous observations from Pulsars, but J1023 was the first system of the genus he explored.
The most pleasant (Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer) and Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory provided precious observations of the system under high energy light. Other telescopes contributing to the data included the very large table of Karl G. Jansky in Magdalena, in New Mexico.
The result: scientists have found the same polarization angle through the different wavelengths.
“This observation is convincing proof that a single coherent physical mechanism underpins the light that we observe,” said Francesco Coti Zelati of the Institute of Space Sciences in Barcelona, Spain, co-directing author of the conclusions.
This interpretation calls into question conventional wisdom concerning neutron star emissions of radiation in binary systems, the researchers said. The previous models had indicated that the X -rays come from the accretion disc, but this new study shows that they come from the pulsar wind.
“IXPE has observed many isolated pulsars and found that the Pulsar wind feeds X -rays,” said NASA Marshall astrophysicist, Philip Kaaret, principal investigator of the IXPE at Marshall Space Flight Center de la NASA in Huntsville, in Alabama. “These new observations show that the Pulsar wind feeds most of the system’s energy production.”
Astronomers continue to study the pulsars of the millisecond of transition, evaluating how the physical mechanisms observed compare to those of other pulsars and the nebulae of the pulsar wind. The ideas of these observations could help to refine the theoretical models describing how the pulsar winds generate radiation – and bring the researchers closer, Baglio and Coti Zelati have agreed to fully understand the physical mechanisms at work in these extraordinary cosmic systems.
Learn more about IXPE
IXPE, which continues to provide unprecedented data allowing revolutionary discoveries on celestial objects through the universe, is a joint mission of NASA and the Italian space agency with scientific partners and collaborators in 12 countries. IXPE is led by the Marshall Space Flight Center of NASA in Huntsville, in Alabama. Bae Systems, Inc., whose headquarters are in Falls Church, Virginia, manages space vessel operations as well as the laboratory of atmospheric and spatial physics of the University of Colorado. Learn more about the current mission of IXPE here:
https://www.nasa.gov/ixpe
