1998 SPACE SCIENCE VIDEOTAPES |
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Tape Title | Record ID | Date Produced | TRT: |
Synopsis |
| CANNIBAL PULSAR | G98-038 | 7/21/98 | 00:05:44 | NASA researchers have discovered the missing link in the evolution of an exotic type of neutron star that "cannibalizes" material from a nearby companion star on its way to becoming a pulsar spinning at 400 times per second.
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TAPE CONTENTS: |
| ITEM (1 ): ANIMATION OF A STELLAR CANNIBAL - (Short Version - 25 sec) - The first accretion powered millisecond pulsar discovered by NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (XTE) may be the long sought after missing link between old neutron stras that emit powerful flashes of X-rays and older, rapidly spinning neutron stars that emit radio waves. The increased rotation may be at the expense of a nearby "companion" star caused by pulling gas from the companion onto its surface in a process called accretion. The fatest of its type, the pulsar now rotates at more than 400 times per second.
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| ITEM (2): ANIMATION OF A STELLAR CANNIBAL - (Long Version - 45 sec) - In a process that takes billions of years a stellar cannibal has a leisurely dinner. At first, one star engulfs the other into its outer atmosphere. The expanding star becomes a Red Giant and collapses after a giant supernova explosion, shedding its outer atmosphere and leaving behind a neutron star. Due to the strong gravitational field of the neutron star, material from the "companion" begins falling on to the neutron star causing it to heat up spin faster and emit x-rays. The X-rays blow material away from the companion causing it to eventually disappear all together. Once there is no more material falling on the neutron star, it begins producing beams of radio waves which we see as a pulsar.
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| ITEM (3): ANIMATION OF NASA'S ROSSI X-RAY TIMING EXPLORER (XTE) - The Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) probes the physics of cosmic X-ray sources by making sensitive measurements of their variability over time scales ranging from milliseconds to years. This time behavior is a source of important information about processes and structures in white-dwarf stars, X-ray binaries, neutron stars, pulsars and black holes. The RXTE satellite was launched on Dec. 30, 1995 atop a Delta II rocket.
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| ITEM (4): INTERVIEW - DR. TOD STROHMAYER, ASTROPHYSICIST
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| ITEM (5): INTERVIEW - DR. FRANK MARSHALL, ASTROPHYSICIST
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| ITEM (6): INTERVIEW - DR. JEAN SWANK, PROJECT SCIENTIST
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