Thanks to NASA's Fermi telescope, it has been possible to capture how an incredible binary (two stars that orbit around their common center of mass) with a rapidly rotating neutron star, underwent a dramatic change that had never been observed before : the pulsar's beacon it faded as the system became five times brighter in gamma rays (the most powerful form of light).
“It's almost as if someone flipped a switch, switching the system from a lower energy state to a higher energy one. The change seems to reflect an erratic interaction between the pulsar and its partner, which allows us the opportunity to explore a rare transition phase in the life of this binary, ”says Benjamin Stappers, leader of the study.
The observed system in question is known as AY Sextantis and is located about 4,400 light-years distant , in the constellation Sextant. The pulsar, called PSR J1023 0038, is 1.7 milliseconds long with a star containing about one-fifth the mass of the Sun.
The findings have been published in The Astrophysical Journal .
