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First view of a newborn millisecond pulsar?

13 February 2002

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The artist's impression shows the pulsar (seen in blue with two radiation beams) and its bloated red companion star in the globular cluster NGC 6397. Scientists believe that the best explanation for seeing a bloated red star instead of a 'quiet' white dwarf in the system is that the pulsar only recently has been spun up to its current rotation speed of 274 times per second by the gases transferred by the red star. It is the first time such a system has been observed

Credits: ESA/Francesco Ferraro (Bologna Astronomical Observatory)

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This ESA/NASA Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 image shows the globular cluster NGC 6397 in the constellation Ara (the Altar). It is composed of six exposures through different filters: violet/indigo (Strvmgren u, 345 nm, 15080 seconds), blue (B, 418 nm, 8580 seconds), dark green (V, 515 nm, 978 seconds), light green (H-alpha, 656 nm, 24180 seconds), red-orange (R, 678 nm, 1538 seconds), and red (I, 839 nm, 978 seconds).

The cluster is home to a highly unusual system consisting of a fast spinning pulsar and a bloated red companion star.

Credits: ESA/Francesco Ferraro (Bologna Astronomical Observatory)

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This composite shows an artist's impression (center) of a millisecond pulsar and its companion with an insert of the ESA/NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the region (upper left). The millisecond pulsar system lies in the globular cluster NGC 6397 in Ara (the Altar). In the Hubble image insert the companion star is marked with an arrow.

The artist's impression shows the pulsar (seen in blue with two radiation beams) and its bloated red companion star. Scientists believe that the best explanation for seeing a bloated red star instead of a 'quiet' white dwarf in the system is that the pulsar only recently has been spun up to its current rotation speed of 274 times per second by the gases transferred by the red star. It is the first time such a system has been observed

Credits: ESA/Francesco Ferraro (Bologna Astronomical Observatory)

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