Pulsars

An artist’s impression of a habitable exoplanet orbiting a pulsar. Image Credit: Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge

Habitable planets may exist round pulsars

These images contain X-ray evidence from Chandra that a clump of stellar material has been jettisoned away from a double star system at incredibly high speeds. Researchers think that the pulsar knocked out the chunk of debris, which spans over a hundred times the size of the Solar System, when it collided with the disk around the massive star while traveling in its elliptical orbit. This trio of images shows Chandra observations taken between December 2011 and February 2014. The bright source in the center of these images is the binary system, while the smaller point-like source to the lower right seen in the second two observations is the clump that has been dislodged.

Pulsar punches hole in companion star disc

NGC_5907_X-1_record-breaking_pulsar copy

Brightest, farthest pulsar ever detected

binary_pulsar_still

Rare stellar encounter will create fireworks

Pulsar Planet 2 header

Exoplanet Excursions: January 2014