Record Details

P898 - Timing Observations of a Massive Neutron Star with a "Giant" Companion

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Title P898 - Timing Observations of a Massive Neutron Star with a "Giant" Companion
 
Subject Astronomical and Space Sciences not elsewhere classified
 
Description Neutron stars are the densest objects we know of, with more than
the mass of our Sun packed within a sphere 10 kilometres in radius.
Actually measuring neutron star masses is very difficult, and less
than 20 have been well determined. They range between 1.2 times and
2.0 times the Solar mass. The maximum possible neutron star mass
(before it collapses into a black hole) is unknown, but important
to know because it helps us to understand the basic forces of Nature
that hold atomic nuclei together, including here on Earth. Millisecond
pulsars are neutron stars that rotate extremely rapidly, up to 700
times per second. They emit beams of radio waves that sweep past
the Earth and telescopes like Parkes once with every turn. Most
millisecond pulsars orbit another star which, billions of years
ago, transferred gas to the neutron star and spun it up to very
rapid rates. Recently astronomers have identified three millisecond
pulsars in our Galaxy that seem to alternate between periods of a
few years in which they emit detectable radio waves and periods in
which mass is apparently being transferred to them. These rapid
changes between such different states are very odd and not yet well
understood. The target of our observations, PSR J1417-4402, seems
like it might be another of these odd systems - and it seems to be
one where we will measure the neutron star mass, which has a good
chance of being quite large.
 
Publisher CSIRO
 
Date 2019-09-13
 
Identifier csiro:P898
 
Language eng