A Quick Look at a Cosmic Jekyll and Hyde

Object Details

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4,111

Video Title

A Quick Look at a Cosmic Jekyll and Hyde

Description

Astronomers have spotted a double star system is flip-flopping between two alter egos using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes. This "Jekyll and Hyde" system contains a dense object called a neutron star in orbit with a star like the Sun but that contains less mass. As they rotate around one another, the neutron star pulls material away from the lighter companion star and a disk of material that surrounds the neutron star forms. Astronomers refer to objects like these as "low-mass X-ray binaries" because the disk often glows brightly in X-ray light. Eventually, the material falls onto the neutron star's surface, causing it to spin faster and faster until it becomes a so-called millisecond pulsar. Scientists think the transformation between a low-mass X-ray binary and millisecond pulsar can take several billion years, but there could be a period of rapid changes. Chandra and VLA data taken between 2003 and 2016 showed that Terzan 5 CX1 has gone back and forth between these two states — a rare example of such behavior.

Video Duration

1 min 13 sec

YouTube Keywords

astronomy space telescope astrophysics science

Data Source

Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

YouTube Channel

cxcpub

Uploaded

2020-02-20T16:00:13.000Z

Creator

Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

Type

YouTube Videos

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cxcpub

YouTube Category

Science & Technology

Topic

Astronomy

Record ID

yt_eecKKfuWdVs

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