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‘Deep impact’ of pulsar around companion star   The pulsar PSR B1259-63 plunges into the ring of Be star SS 2883 twice during its 3.4-year elliptical orbit. The plunges are only a few months apart, just before and after periastron, the point when the two objects in orbit are closest to each other.
It is during the plunges that X-rays and gamma rays are emitted. The XMM-Newton observatory detects X-rays as seen on the background image.  Pulsar PSR B1259-63 is a radio pulsar, which means most of the time it emits only radio waves. The binary system lies in the general direction of the Southern Cross about 5000 light-years away. PSR B1259-63 orbits a ‘Be’ star named SS 2883, which is bright and visible to amateur astronomers, seen here in this image. ‘Be’ stars, so named because of certain spectral characteristics, tend to be a few times more massive than our Sun and rotate at astonishing speeds. They rotate so fast that their equatorial region bulges and they become flattened spheres, and some fling off gas which settles into an equatorial ring around the star.
The pulsar plunges into the Be star’s ring twice during its 3.4-year elliptical orbit and it is during the plunges that X-rays and gamma rays are emitted.  ESA's XMM-Newton is the most sensitive X-ray telescope ever built. Its high-technology design uses over 170 wafer-thin cylindrical mirrors spread over three telescopes. Its orbit takes it almost a third of the way to the Moon, so that astronomers can enjoy long, uninterrupted views of celestial objects.
This unique X-ray observatory was launched by Ariane 5 from the European spaceport at Kourou in French Guiana on 10 December 1999. It derives its name from its X-ray multi-mirror design and honours Sir Isaac Newton. Release date: 28 February 2006 |