Pulsars, X-Ray Binaries and Kilonovas

Neutron stars make themselves known by their spin. They create a huge magnetic dynamo that powers the emissions seen in X-rays and gamma-rays. The result is a pulsar or magnetar. The Crab Nebula is a classic example of these amazing objects. They can do similar things as we saw with novae but with much more extreme results: the kilonovae. Neutron stars make themselves known by their spin. They create a huge magnetic dynamo that powers the emissions seen in X-rays and gamma-rays. They can also do similar things as we saw with novae but with more extreme results. In this lecture series, I talk about the end states of stars. The amazing white dwarfs and neutron stars. White Dwarfs are fascinating end states of Solar-mass (or slightly bigger) stars. Sirius "b" is among the closest known and we know many things about these oddball planet-sized stars from the Dog Star's dog. Next, if we combine the common nature of white dwarfs and the fact that most stars are in binary (or more) systems, then we can see that as stars die, they can interact. Novae and Type 1a supernovae are the result. White dwarf stars can cause sudden outbursts called novae and even do a special supernova. Then we go to some of the most amazing objects in the universe that are still things are neutron stars. Often looked at in astronomy as the thing on the way to black holes, neutron stars are the most extreme objects in the universe composed of what we might still call normal matter. Black holes are another thing. These boundary objects have wild properties and have extreme effects on their surroundings. Forged in the instantaneous fire of a core-collapse supernova, they are awesome objects. Finally, neutron stars make themselves known by their spin. They create a huge magnetic dynamo that powers the emissions seen in X-rays and gamma-rays. The result is a pulsar or magnetar. The Crab Nebula is a classic example of these amazing objects. They can do similar things as we saw with novae but with much more extreme results: the kilonovae. This is part of an entire online introductory college course. This video series was used at William Paterson University and CUNY Hunter in online classes as well as to supplement course material. Supplement the videos with "OpenStax Astronomy" https://openstax.org/books/astronomy/pages/23-thinking-ahead 23: The Death of Stars Kilonova: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilonova Neutron Stars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_star Conservation of Angular Momentum: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angular_momentum#Conservation_of_angular_momentum Pulsars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulsar Magnetars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetar Telsa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_(unit) Jocelyn Bell Burnell: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jocelyn_Bell_Burnell Nuclear pasta may offer insight into the strange world of neutron stars: https://phys.org/news/2015-02-nuclear-pasta-insight-strange-world.html Nuclear Pasta in Neutron Stars: https://astrobites.org/2017/10/05/nuclear-pasta-in-neutron-stars/ Astromaterial Science and Nuclear Pasta: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1606.03646.pdf The Crab Pulsar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_Pulsar Hubble's View of the Crab Pulsar: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2016/37/ Space Movie Reveals Shocking Secrets of the Crab Pulsar: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/0052/index.html Vela Pulsar Jet: New Chandra Movie Features Neutron Star Action: http://www.chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2013/vela/ Vela Pulsar: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/multimedia/vela2012.html New Chandra Movie Features Neutron Star Action: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/news/vela_pulsar.html X-ray burster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray_burster Image: http://www2011.mpe.mpg.de/heg/www/HEG-PIFICONS/ro-4.jpg 0:00 Introduction 1:17 Pulsars: Accidental Discovery in 1967 6:57 Pulsar "Lighthouse" Model 12:04 Pulsar Evolution 17:48 The Crab Nebula in History 21:14 Many Wavelength Crab 22:22 The Crab by Chandra X-Ray Observatory 25:33 Recent Hubble image of M1 29:50 Vela Pulsar by Chandra 32:12 Binary Neutron Stars 35:03 X-ray binary spinning up a neutron star 38:11 Colliding Neutron Stars 39:50 Over the Top? 40:57 REVIEW QUESTIONS