Artist's impression of an evolving white dwarf and millisecond pulsar binary system. (IMAGE)

Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA)

Artist's impression of an evolving white dwarf and millisecond pulsar binary system.

Caption

Artist's impression of an evolving white dwarf (foreground) and millisecond pulsar (background) binary system. Using the 4.1-meter SOAR Telescope on Cerro Pachón in Chile, part of Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF's NOIRLab, astronomers have discovered the first example of a binary system consisting of an evolving white dwarf orbiting a millisecond pulsar, in which the millisecond pulsar is in the final phase of the spin-up process. The source, originally detected by the Fermi Space Telescope, is a “missing link” in the evolution of such binary systems.

Credit

NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva/Spaceengine Acknowledgment: M. Zamani (NSF's NOIRLab)

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License

CC BY

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