Feb 25, 2020 - Science

Astronomers find double star system that keeps changing its behavior

Miriam Kramer

A large cluster of stars 19,000 light-years from Earth harbors something strange: Within the cluster, a neutron star left over after a supernova explosion orbits a star not too different from our Sun.

The big picture: The Chandra observatory has been observing that star system — known as Terzan 5 CX1 — for more than a decade, and in that time, Terzan 5 CX1 has gone from looking like one type of star system to another and back again.

As that neutron star orbits the other in the pair, its immense gravity pulls material from the companion star, forming a disk around the neutron star.
All that material falling in on the neutron star makes it spin quickly, blowing away any extra material encircling the star and transforming it into what's known as a millisecond pulsar.

Yes, but: Chandra found this star system has gone from behaving like a more typical binary to a millisecond pulsar and then back again.

It's not yet clear why the pair has done this dance multiple times, but scientists expect this is a phase in the evolution of these types of star systems.

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Astronomers find double star system that keeps changing its behavior

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