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The youngest member of an important class of objects called X-ray binaries were found using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Australia Compact Telescope Array. X-ray binaries consist of a dense object -- either a black hole or a neutron star -- in orbit with a star like the Sun. Researchers found that the neutron star in Circinus X-1 is less than 4,600 years old, making it much younger than any other X-ray binary known in the Milky Way. This discovery allows astronomers to study a critical phase after a supernova explosion and the birth of a neutron star.
A new study shows that the X-ray binary called Circinus X-1 is less than 4,600 years old, making it the youngest ever seen. Astronomers have detected hundreds of X-ray binaries throughout the Milky Way and other nearby galaxies. However, these older X-ray binaries only reveal information about what happens later in the evolution of these systems.
This image from 2013 shows the X-ray data from Chandra.
Credit: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison/S.Heinz et al;
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The youngest member of an important class of objects has been found using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Australia Compact Telescope Array. A composite image shows the X-rays in blue and radio emission in purple, which have been overlaid on an optical field of view from the Digitized Sky Survey. This discovery, described in the press release, allows scientists to study a critical phase after a supernova and the birth of a neutron star.
Systems known as "X-ray binaries" are some of the brightest X-ray sources in the sky. They consist of either an ultra-dense star packed with neutrons --- a.k.a., a "neutron star" --- or a black hole that is paired with a normal star like the sun. As these two objects orbit one another, the neutron star or black hole pulls material from the companion star onto it.
A new study shows that the X-ray binary called Circinus X-1 is less than 4,600 years old, making it the youngest ever seen. Astronomers have detected hundreds of X-ray binaries throughout the Milky Way and other nearby galaxies. However, these older X-ray binaries only reveal information about what happens later in the evolution of these systems.
Astronomers were able to determine the age of Circinus X-1 by examining material around the orbiting pair. While the source itself has been known for decades, the neutron star is usually so bright that the glare from its X-ray light overwhelms any faint emission surrounding it. The new Chandra data were obtained while the neutron star was in a very faint state, which meant it was dim enough for astronomers to detect the faint afterglow created by the supernova explosion plowing through the surrounding interstellar gas. This, combined with characteristics of the radio emission, allowed the researchers to pinpoint the age of the supernova remnant. In turn, this information reveals the age of the neutron star since they were formed at the same time.
These results have been published in the December 4th issue of The Astrophysical Journal. In addition to those mentioned above, the other authors on this paper are Peter Jonker of the SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Niel Brandt of Penn State University, Daniel Emilio Calvelo-Santos of the University of Southampton, Tasso Tzioumis of the Australia Telescope National Facility, Michael Nowak and Norbert Schultz of the Kavli Institute/MIT, Rudy Wijnands and Michiel van der Klis of the University of Amsterdam.
Read entire caption: www.chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2013/cirx1/
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison/S.Heinz et al; Optical: DSS; Radio: CSIRO/ATNF/ATCA
Caption credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
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M62 is known for being one of the most irregularly shaped globular clusters in our galaxy. This might be because it is one of the closest globular clusters to the center of our galaxy and is affected by galactic tidal forces, displacing many of the cluster’s stars toward the southeast.
M62 has an extremely dense core of 150,000 stars. In 2013, astronomers discovered a stellar-mass black hole in M62, one of the first to ever be found in a globular cluster. According to observations from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, M62 also contains a large number of X-ray binaries, which formed in close encounters between stars in the cluster.
French comet-hunter Charles Messier discovered M62 in 1771. The globular cluster is almost 12 billion years old. M62 has a magnitude of 6.6 and is located in the constellation Ophiuchus, approximately 22,200 light-years away from Earth. The cluster is located southeast of the bright star Antares and can be seen as a hazy patch of light with binoculars.
For more information, visit: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/messier-62
Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, and S. Anderson (University of Washington), and J. Chaname (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile)
The high concentration of stars within globular clusters like Messier 12 (M12), shown here in an image from the Hubble Space Telescope, makes them beautiful photographic targets. But the cramped living quarters in these clusters also makes them home to exotic binary star systems where two stars are locked in tight orbits around each other and matter from one is gobbled up by its companion, releasing X-rays.
It is thought that such X-ray binaries form from very close encounters between stars in crowded regions, such as globular clusters. And even though Messier 12 is fairly diffuse by globular cluster standards, such X-ray sources have been spotted there.
Astronomers have also discovered that Messier 12 is home to far fewer low-mass stars than was previously expected. Astronomers used the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope at Cerro Paranal, Chile, to measure the brightness and colors of more than 16,000 of the globular’s 200,000 stars. They speculate that nearly one million low-mass stars have been ripped away from Messier 12 as the globular cluster passed through the densest regions of the Milky Way during its orbit around the galactic center. It seems that the serenity of this view of Messier 12 is misleading, and the object has had a violent and disturbed past.
For more information, visit: www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1113a/
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Low mass X-ray binaries, like the artist's impression shown to the right, consist of a low mass star like our sun and a compact object, such as a neutron star or a black hole. Matter is transferred from the normal star to the neutron star, forming a disk of material around the neutron star. X-rays are emitted as the material falls onto the neutron star.