* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

IGR J18410-0535

Blobrana · L

Supergiant Shoots Matter at Neutron Star, Flare Ensue

Gas from a supergiant star was swallowed into a neighbouring neutron star's gravity field, superheating the gas and producing a flare lasting 4 hours. XMM-Newton space observatory witnessed the IGR J18410-0535 system event.

Blobrana · L

Neutron star bites off more than it can chew

The flare lasted four hours and the X-rays came from the gas in the clump as it was heated to millions of degrees while being pulled into the neutron stars intense gravity field. In fact, the clump was so big that not much of it hit the neutron star. Yet, if the neutron star had not been in its path, this clump would probably have disappeared into space without trace.
XMM-Newton caught the flare during a scheduled 12.5-hour observation of the system, which is known only by its catalogue number IGR J18410-0535, but the astronomers were unaware of their catch immediately.
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Blobrana · L

IGR J18410-0535

Position (2000): RA 18 41 0.43 | Dec -05° 35' 46".5

Blobrana · L

Neutron star caught feasting on clump of stellar matter

With a stroke of luck, astronomers using ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory have observed a neutron star in a peculiar X-ray binary system undergoing an extremely rare, intense flare. This outburst of X-rays, which lasted about four hours, was due to a sudden increase in the rate at which the neutron star was accreting matter from its companion, a blue supergiant star. By monitoring this phenomenon in unprecedented detail, the data provide the first, substantive evidence to explain such luminosity variations in this type of binary system; the flare appears to be due to the ingestion of a massive clump of matter by the neutron star.
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