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Hungry Millisecond Pulsar Found Feeding

Posted by michael on from the yum-yum dept.

Gopher971 writes: "The latest joint discovery by the Hubble Telescope is a Millisecond Pulsar feeding off of it's companion Red Giant star. Scientists have long speculated on how Milli Pulsars formed and now have proof to back up their claims. See the UniSci link and The Irish Times link."

2 of 15 comments (clear)

  1. The first theory sounds incorrect by Spamalamadingdong · · Score: 2, Informative
    One says that the burn will be fast and explosive, blowing all the rest of the new, degenerate and normal matter off of the surface.
    Where'd that theory come from? I've been reading about neutron stars for some time and I've seen this as an explanation for X-ray bursters (the ignition of the accumulated hydrogen makes the surface extremely hot for a while, then it cools), but the star does not lose matter; the energy of fusing hydrogen is not sufficient to overcome the gravity of a neutron star.

    That sounds more like a certain theory for the collapse of white dwarfs under infalling matter. Supposedly this would always happen at the same mass and produce uniformly bright supernovae.

    --
    Scientists restrict study to entire physical universe; creationist
  2. Globular Clusters! by s0l0m0n · · Score: 2, Informative

    Sounds like a sick snack, don't it.

    here's a link to Globular Cluster NGC6397

    Can you find the pulsar? *grin*

    Photo taken from the Hubble, circa 1994.