Black Widow Pulsars: Vengeful Star Corpses by Dr. Roger Romani

Sep 17, 2014

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NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has revealed a violent high-energy universe full of stellar explosions, black hole jets, and pulsing stars. These cosmic objects are often faint when observed with visible light, but glow bright with gamma rays. Dr. Romani will describe the quest to discover the true nature of the most puzzling of these gamma-ray sources. Several turn out to be a kind of star corpse called a ‘black widow’ pulsar. When a massive star dies, it leaves a collapsed remnant called a neutron star. When such a star corpse has a companion star, it can be reanimated by material from the companion. Ironically, the revived corpse then begins to vaporize its mate. Dr. Romani will discuss his group’s discovery that these black widows may be the heaviest neutron stars known, on the edge of final collapse to black holes.

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Welcome to the San Francisco Amateur Astronomers! We are here to help you get the most out of amateur astronomy. You’ll find our club has something fun and interesting for you to do whether you are a beginner or an experienced amateur. Our members are all Bay Area enthusiasts who love the varied aspects of our hobby – public outreach, star viewing trips, scientific lectures, telescope making clinics as well as private members-only dark sky viewing nights and more. The SFAA has been operating since 1952 and proudly continues a long tradition of helping promote the appreciation of the wonders of the night sky within our Bay Area community.

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