Visualization of NICER Observations (IMAGE)

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Visualization of NICER Observations

Caption

Between 2017 and 2019, NASA's Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) and radio telescopes in Japan studied the Crab pulsar at the same time. In this visualization, which represents just 13 minutes of NICER observations, millions of X-rays are plotted relative to the pulsar's rotational phase, which is centered on the strongest radio emission. For clarity, two full rotations are shown. As the pulsar beams sweep across our line of sight, they produce two peaks for each rotation, with the brighter one associated with greater numbers of giant radio pulses. For the first time, NICER data show a slight increase in X-ray emission associated with these events.

Credit

Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Enoto et al. 2021

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