NASA-JAXA XRISM Mission Sees Pulsar Accreting Companion's 'Wind' (SVS15099)

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This artist’s concept of the BP Crucis system follows the pulsar on a passage through the dense stream of plasma flowing from its companion, a blue hypergiant 40 times the Sun’s mass. During each four-day passage, the pulsar’s X-ray brightness flares as it pulls in some of the gas. At first, the gas forms a messy, turbulent accretion disk around the pulsar, and plasma spirals down to it. But as the pulsar moves deeper into the stream, there’s not enough angular momentum to support the disk, and it breaks up. At this point, plasma falls straight onto the pulsar. Later, as the pulsar nears the end of its passage, a messy accretion disk rebuilds, this time spinning in the opposite direction of the earlier disk. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image LaboratoryAlt text: Animation of the BP Crucis system0:00 A wide view, showing the giant star, its gas stream, and the pulsar nearing it. 0:08 The camera zooms into the pulsar as it encounters the stream. 0:10 Gas flowing past the pulsar forms a clockwise-spinning accretion disk. 0:17 The disk breaks up. The gas now flows directly onto the pulsar. 0:35 As the pulsar nears the end of its passage through the stream, a new disk, spinning counterclockwise, forms. 0:51 The disk breaks up and the pulsar exits the stream. 0:52 Return to a wide view of the system.