Brothers in scale: a rare pair

Found another - only the fifth - we know of the extremely rare and extremely difficult to observe double stars.
Unlike other gamma- ray binary star systems, detection of which was almost pure chance, which is located in the 15 th. light-years away 1FGL J1018 binary system. 6-5856 found quite purposefully. The new method proposed by Robin Corbet (Robin Corbet) and her colleagues, may in the future to exclude from this process is an element of chance, and the search for these rare objects will be carried out quite deliberately.

High-energy gamma-ray bursts are extremely difficult to even notice, because the earth from their powerful streams often reach just a few photons, and they are absorbed by the atmosphere, so that their observations from the Earth's surface are impossible. Therefore, in this paper, Korba and colleagues used the cosmic gamma-ray telescope Fermi.

The few (so far they have been known to four) of gamma- ray binary systems, which are known to scientists today, were discovered only by a happy coincidence. Astronomers have noticed some strange objects in the radio waves or X-rays, then these objects are studied more carefully - and only then identify them. The case of 1FGL J1018. 6-5856 - special: ...

According to scientists, the system 1FGL J1018. 6-5856 is a rapidly spinning neutron star pulsating in the result of interactions with the stellar wind of the companion star, which refers to the spectral class O - that is, to the hottest, brightest and largest. The stars of this binary system turn around each other for 17 Earth days, and periodically discharges a powerful neutron flux of gamma rays.

Apparently, it was the huge size and - consequently - huge amounts of wind and the density of charged particles from the star, the O- class, lead to the fact that this dual system is not observed for the usual periodic outbreaks of such facilities in other regions of the spectrum - in fact, they block the wind.

According to scientists, over time, these gamma- ray systems have evolved: the extremely rapid rotation is just a quick, and the wavelength of their emission lengthened all, moving in the X-ray region. The system becomes more familiar form of X-ray pulsar.