Astronomers have just solved a long-standing mystery about a rare, rapidly spinning Explosive Star Remnants and a Mysterious Pulsar System
A global team of astronomers has made a significant discovery about how the energetic remains of exploded stars interact with the space around them. Using NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) along with several other observatories, researchers gathered new insights into this dynamic cosmic behavior. The scientists, working across the United States, Italy, and Spain, focused their investigation on a puzzling stellar system known as PSR J1023+0038, or simply J1023. This system features a rapidly spinning neutron star that draws material from a smaller companion star. As a result, an accretion disk of matter has formed around the neutron star. The neutron star also functions as a pulsar, emitting intense beams of radiation from its magnetic poles as it spins, creating a pattern that resembles a lighthouse sweeping through space. What makes J1023 especially important is that it switches between two distinct phases. In one phase, the pulsar actively pulls in material from its companion star. In the other, it becomes quieter, sending out detectable pulses as radio waves. Because of this behavior, astronomers classify it as a “transitional millisecond pulsar.” “Transitional millisecond pulsars are cosmic laboratories, helping us understand how neutron stars evolve in binary systems,” said researcher Maria Cristina Baglio of the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) Brera Observatory in Merate, Italy, and lead author of a paper in The The result: scientists found the same angle of polarization across the different wavelengths. “That finding is compelling evidence that a single, coherent physical mechanism underpins the light we observe,” said Francesco Coti Zelati of the Institute of Space Sciences in Barcelona, Spain, co-lead author of the findings. This interpretation challenges the conventional wisdom about neutron star emissions of radiation in binary systems, the researchers said. Previous models had indicated that the X-rays come from the accretion disk, but this new study shows they originate with the pulsar wind. “IXPE has observed many isolated pulsars and found that the pulsar wind powers the X-rays,” said NASA Marshall astrophysicist Philip Kaaret, principal investigator for IXPE at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “These new observations show that the pulsar wind powers most of the energy output of the system.” Astronomers continue to study transitional millisecond pulsars, assessing how observed physical mechanisms compare with those of other pulsars and pulsar wind nebulae. Insights from these observations could help refine theoretical models describing how pulsar winds generate radiation – and bring researchers one step closer, Baglio and Coti Zelati agreed, to fully understanding the physical mechanisms at work in these extraordinary cosmic systems. Reference: “Polarized Multiwavelength Emission from Pulsar Wind—Accretion Disk Interaction in a Transitional Millisecond Pulsar” by Maria Cristina Baglio, Francesco Coti Zelati, Alessandro Di Marco, Fabio La Monaca, Alessandro Papitto, Andrew K. Hughes, Sergio Campana, David M. Russell, Diego F. Torres, Francesco Carotenuto, Stefano Covino, Domitilla de Martino, Stefano Giarratana, Sara E. Motta, Kevin Alabarta, Paolo D’Avanzo, Giulia Illiano, Marco M. Messa, Arianna Miraval Zanon and Nanda Rea, 31 June 2025, The Astrophysical Journal Letters. More about IXPE IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) is a groundbreaking space observatory that is transforming our understanding of the high-energy universe. A joint mission between NASA and the Italian Space Agency, with scientific collaborators from 12 countries, IXPE is the first satellite dedicated to measuring the polarization of X-rays from extreme cosmic objects like neutron stars, black holes, and supernova remnants. Led by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, IXPE is delivering unprecedented data that reveal the physical conditions, geometry, and behavior of some of the most energetic and mysterious phenomena in the cosmos. Spacecraft operations are managed by BAE Systems, Inc., in partnership with the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder. By capturing how X-rays are polarized—how their waves are oriented—IXPE helps astronomers probe magnetic fields, particle acceleration, and emission mechanisms in ways never before possible. Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.
Cosmic Laboratories for Neutron Star Evolution
Probing Polarized Light with IXPE and European Southern Observatory’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer) and Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array in Magdalena, New Mexico.
Matching Polarization Confirms a Theory
Pulsar Winds as Dominant Energy Engines
DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/add7d2
