- Source: Black Widow Pulsar
The Black Widow Pulsar (PSR B1957+20) is an eclipsing binary millisecond pulsar in the Milky Way. Discovered in 1988, it is located roughly 6,500 light-years (2,000 parsecs) away from Earth. It orbits with a brown dwarf or Super-Jupiter companion with a period of 9.2 hours with an eclipse duration of approximately 20 minutes. When it was discovered, it was the first such pulsar known. The prevailing theoretical explanation for the system implied that the companion is being destroyed by the strong powerful outflows, or winds, of high-energy particles caused by the neutron star; thus, the sobriquet black widow was applied to the object. Subsequent to this, other objects with similar features have been discovered, and the name has been applied to the class of millisecond pulsars with an ablating companion, as of February 2023 around 41 black widows are known to exist.
Later observations of the object showed a bow shock in H-alpha and a smaller-in-extent shock seen in X-rays (as observed by the Chandra X-ray Observatory), indicating a forward velocity of approximately a million kilometers per hour.
In 2010, it was estimated that the neutron star's mass was at least
1.66
M
⊙
{\displaystyle 1.66M_{\odot }}
and possibly as high as
2.4
M
⊙
{\displaystyle 2.4M_{\odot }}
(the latter of which, if true, would surpass PSR J0740+6620 for the title of most massive neutron star yet detected and place it within range of the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit). In January 2023 the upper limit was revised down to
1.8
M
⊙
{\displaystyle 1.8M_{\odot }}
Planets
The pulsar has a substellar companion, possibly a brown dwarf.
Gallery
Artist impressions of the Black Widow Pulsar.
See also
PSR J1544+4937
PSR J1719-1438
References
Kata Kunci Pencarian:
- Bintang neutron
- Black Widow Pulsar
- Black widow
- PSR J0952–0607
- PSR J1311–3430
- List of neutron stars
- Neutron star
- List of most massive neutron stars
- Binary mass function
- Pulsar planet
- Einstein@Home
