NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory captured spider pulsars, a group of dead stars, shredding companion stars within their reach. These are basically a special class of millisecond pulsars with winds of energetic particles that stream out and strip away their companion stars.
Using Chandra data, along with the Parkes and MeerKAT radio telescopes, astronomers discovered 18 millisecond pulsars in Omega Centauri, which is located approximately 17,700 light-years from Earth. Of those 18, there were 11 millisecond pulsars emitting X-rays, with 5 of those being spider pulsars concentrated near the center of Omega Centauri.
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Spider pulsars are typically separated from their companions by only about one to 14 times the distance between the Earth and Moon. This close proximity — cosmically speaking — causes the energetic particles from the pulsars to be particularly damaging to their companion stars,” said the team.
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