Star eats companion

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Star eats companion
ESA's Integral space observatory, together with NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer spacecraft, has found a fast-spinning pulsar in the process of devouring its companion.
This finding supports the theory that the fastest-spinning isolated pulsars get that fast by cannibalising a nearby star. Gas ripped from the companion fuels the pulsar's acceleration. This is the sixth pulsar known in such an arrangement, and it represents a 'stepping stone' in the evolution of slower-spinning binary pulsars into faster-spinning isolated pulsars.


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