{"id":8274,"date":"2016-04-01T06:04:54","date_gmt":"2016-04-01T06:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revoscience.com\/en\/?p=8274"},"modified":"2016-04-01T06:04:54","modified_gmt":"2016-04-01T06:04:54","slug":"found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/found\/","title":{"rendered":"Found: Andromeda’s first spinning neuron star"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Andromeda\u2019s<\/a>
Andromeda\u2019s spinning neutron star<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Decades of searching in the Milky Way\u2019s nearby \u2018twin\u2019 galaxy Andromeda have finally paid off, with the discovery of an elusive breed of stellar corpse, a neutron star, by ESA\u2019s XMM-Newton space telescope.<\/span><\/p>\n

Andromeda, or M31, is a popular target among astronomers. Under clear, dark skies it is even visible to the naked eye. Its proximity and similarity in structure to our own spiral galaxy, the Milky Way, make it an important natural laboratory for astronomers. It has been extensively studied for decades by telescopes covering the whole electromagnetic spectrum.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite being extremely well studied, one particular class of object had never been detected: spinning neutron stars.<\/span><\/p>\n

Neutron stars are the small and extraordinarily dense remains of a once-massive star that exploded as a powerful supernova at the end of its natural life. They often spin very rapidly and can sweep regular pulses of radiation towards Earth, like a lighthouse beacon appearing to flash on and off as it rotates.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[pullquote]Now, astronomers systematically searching through the archives of data from XMM-Newton X-ray telescope have uncovered the signal of an unusual source fitting the bill of a fast-spinning neutron star.[\/pullquote]<\/p>\n

These \u2018pulsars\u2019 can be found in stellar couples, with the neutron star cannibalising its neighbour. This can lead to the neutron star spinning faster, and to pulses of high-energy X-rays from hot gas being funnelled down magnetic fields on to the neutron star.<\/span><\/p>\n

Binary systems hosting a neutron star like this are quite common in our own Galaxy, but regular signals from such a pairing had never before been seen in Andromeda.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, astronomers systematically searching through the archives of data from XMM-Newton X-ray telescope have uncovered the signal of an unusual source fitting the bill of a fast-spinning neutron star.<\/span><\/p>\n

It spins every 1.2 seconds, and appears to be feeding on a neighbouring star that orbits it every 1.3 days.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were expecting to detect periodic signals among the brightest X-ray objects in Andromeda, in line with what we already found during the 1960s and 1970s in our own Galaxy,\u201d says Gian Luca Israel, from INAF-Osservatorio Astronomica di Roma, Italy, one of the authors of the paper describing the results, \u201cBut persistent, bright X-ray pulsars like this are still somewhat peculiar, so it was not completely a sure thing we would find one in Andromeda.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe looked through archival data of Andromeda spanning 2000\u201313, but it wasn\u2019t until 2015 that we were finally able to identify this object in the galaxy\u2019s outer spiral in just two of the 35 measurements.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While the precise nature of the system remains unclear, the data imply that it is unusual and exotic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt could be what we call a \u2018peculiar low-mass X-ray binary pulsar\u2019 \u2013 in which the companion star is less massive than our Sun \u2013 or alternatively an intermediate-mass binary system, with a companion of about two solar masses,\u201d says Paolo Esposito of INAF-Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica, Milan, Italy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to acquire more observations of the pulsar and its companion to help determine which scenario is more likely.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe well-known Andromeda galaxy has long been a source of exciting discoveries, and now an intriguing periodic signal has been detected by our flagship X-ray mission,\u201d adds Norbert Schartel, ESA\u2019s XMM-Newton project scientist.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in a better position now to uncover more objects like this in Andromeda, both with XMM-Newton and with future missions such as ESA\u2019s next-generation high-energy observatory, Athena.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Decades of searching in the Milky Way\u2019s nearby \u2018twin\u2019 galaxy Andromeda have finally paid off, with the discovery of an elusive breed of stellar corpse, a neutron star, by ESA\u2019s XMM-Newton space telescope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":8275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","category-space-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Andromeda_s_spinning_neutron_star_node_full_image_2.jpg",514,700,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Andromeda_s_spinning_neutron_star_node_full_image_2-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Andromeda_s_spinning_neutron_star_node_full_image_2-220x300.jpg",220,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Andromeda_s_spinning_neutron_star_node_full_image_2.jpg",514,700,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Andromeda_s_spinning_neutron_star_node_full_image_2.jpg",514,700,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Andromeda_s_spinning_neutron_star_node_full_image_2.jpg",514,700,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Andromeda_s_spinning_neutron_star_node_full_image_2.jpg",514,700,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Andromeda_s_spinning_neutron_star_node_full_image_2.jpg",514,700,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Andromeda_s_spinning_neutron_star_node_full_image_2.jpg",419,570,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Andromeda_s_spinning_neutron_star_node_full_image_2.jpg",514,700,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Andromeda_s_spinning_neutron_star_node_full_image_2.jpg",441,600,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Andromeda_s_spinning_neutron_star_node_full_image_2.jpg",360,490,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Andromeda_s_spinning_neutron_star_node_full_image_2.jpg",264,360,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Andromeda_s_spinning_neutron_star_node_full_image_2.jpg",48,65,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Andromeda_s_spinning_neutron_star_node_full_image_2.jpg",514,700,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Andromeda_s_spinning_neutron_star_node_full_image_2.jpg",70,96,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Andromeda_s_spinning_neutron_star_node_full_image_2.jpg",150,204,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Research<\/a> Space\/ AstroPhysics<\/a>","tag_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}