New Cosmic Lighthouse Model (VIDEO)

National Institutes of Natural Sciences

Caption

This is an artist's impression of the new cosmic lighthouse model. When gases (red) fall onto a neutron star, the accretion columns are heated by shock waves and shine brightly. Photons can escape from the columns through the sidewall and do not prevent additional gas from accreting. Therefore these columns continue to emit an enormous amount of photos. In this model, due to the misalignment between the accretion columns and the rotation axis, the appearance of the accretion columns changes periodically with the rotation of the neutron star. Dazzling pulsed emissions can be observed when the apparent area of the columns reaches maximum.

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NAOJ

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