Home · Science · Oct 4 archive
XRISM Observatory Detects Pulsar Feeding on Companion's Stellar Wind
Confirmed
In Short: Scientists using the XRISM observatory have made a groundbreaking detection of a pulsar feeding on its companion star's wind.
Scientists using the X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) observatory have made a groundbreaking detection of a pulsar feeding on its companion star's wind, marking the first time this phenomenon has been directly observed.
The system, known as BP Crucis, is located about 13,000 light-years away in the southern constellation Crux. The pulsar, named GX 301-2, is a neutron star that sweeps its X-ray beam toward Earth with a period of 11 minutes.
Using the Resolve instrument on XRISM, researchers observed the system on February 1, 2025, near the end of one of its stronger flares. This data revealed the speed and direction of plasma relatively close to the pulsar, a first-ever direct observation.
The observed redshift indicated a velocity of about 540,000 km/h (335,000 mph), confirming that the stellar wind was flowing toward the pulsar. This process, where the companion star constantly feeds the pulsar with ionized gas, causes the pulsar to release strong X-ray flares.
According to Brian Williams, the mission’s project scientist at NASA Goddard, the BP Crucis system is an ideal laboratory for studying wind-fed pulsar accretion. XRISM’s sensitive, high-resolution Resolve spectrometer is an ideal instrument for advancing our understanding of these processes.
In contrast, Stellar, a cryptocurrency designed for smaller transactions, has seen a different trajectory compared to XRP in 2026. XRP has declined 14%, while Stellar has increased 8%. Both cryptocurrencies had a strong week recently, with XRP gaining 22% and Stellar rising 18%.
Stellar began 2026 at $0.20, near the bottom of its own downward trend after a July 2025 peak of $0.52. XRP, on the other hand, was relatively high on its downward path at the start of the year.
Over the past year, both cryptocurrencies have seen similar drops: 44% for XRP and 40% for Stellar. However, since August 23, XRP’s rise has been slightly slower, gaining 7% compared to Stellar’s 12%, suggesting both cryptocurrencies have been moving closely together.
Stellar Blade: Complete Edition, a game that has already sold an estimated 6.1 million copies across PlayStation 5 and PC, is set to launch on Nintendo Switch on November 5, 2026, at a listed price of $59.99.
The game’s developer, Shift Up, is trying to convert this momentum into a third platform right as it develops a full sequel.
This new detection by XRISM provides a unique opportunity to study the complex interactions between pulsars and their companion stars, advancing our understanding of these cosmic phenomena.
The comparison between XRP and Stellar highlights the different market trends and performance metrics of these cryptocurrencies, despite their similar recent movements.
What this adds
Scientists using the XRISM observatory have made a groundbreaking detection of a pulsar feeding on its companion star's wind, marking the first time this phenomenon has been directly observed. This detection by XRISM provides a unique opportunity to study the complex interactions between pulsars and their companion stars, advancing our understanding of these cosmic phenomena.
Background
Scientists using the XRISM observatory have made a groundbreaking detection of a pulsar feeding on its companion star's wind.
What's confirmed
- Scientists using the X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) observatory have made a groundbreaking detection of a pulsar feeding on its companion star's wind, marking the first time this phenomenon has been directly observed.
- The system, known as BP Crucis, is located about 13,000 light-years away in the southern constellation Crux. The pulsar, named GX 301-2, is a neutron star that sweeps its X-ray beam toward Earth with a period of 11 minutes.
- Using the Resolve instrument on XRISM, researchers observed the system on February 1, 2025, near the end of one of its stronger flares. This data revealed the speed and direction of plasma relatively close to the pulsar, a first-ever direct observation.
- The observed redshift indicated a velocity of about 540,000 km/h (335,000 mph), confirming that the stellar wind was flowing toward the pulsar. This process, where the companion star constantly feeds the pulsar with ionized gas, causes the pulsar to release strong X-ray flares.
- According to Brian Williams, the mission’s project scientist at NASA Goddard, the BP Crucis system is an ideal laboratory for studying wind-fed pulsar accretion. XRISM’s sensitive, high-resolution Resolve spectrometer is an ideal instrument for advancing our understanding of these processes.
- In contrast, Stellar, a cryptocurrency designed for smaller transactions, has seen a different trajectory compared to XRP in 2026. XRP has declined 14%, while Stellar has increased 8%. Both cryptocurrencies had a strong week recently, with XRP gaining 22% and Stellar rising 18%.
- Stellar began 2026 at $0.20, near the bottom of its own downward trend after a July 2025 peak of $0.52. XRP, on the other hand, was relatively high on its downward path at the start of the year.
- Over the past year, both cryptocurrencies have seen similar drops: 44% for XRP and 40% for Stellar. However, since August 23, XRP’s rise has been slightly slower, gaining 7% compared to Stellar’s 12%, suggesting both cryptocurrencies have been moving closely together.
- Stellar Blade: Complete Edition, a game that has already sold an estimated 6.1 million copies across PlayStation 5 and PC, is set to launch on Nintendo Switch on November 5, 2026, at a listed price of $59.99.
- The game’s developer, Shift Up, is trying to convert this momentum into a third platform right as it develops a full sequel.
- This new detection by XRISM provides a unique opportunity to study the complex interactions between pulsars and their companion stars, advancing our understanding of these cosmic phenomena.
- The comparison between XRP and Stellar highlights the different market trends and performance metrics of these cryptocurrencies, despite their similar recent movements.
What's still developing
- XRP and Stellar both serve cross-border payments, but their 2026 price gap tells a story that goes beyond simple performance numbers.
- This means that the current year-to-date performance doesn’t tell the whole story of the XRP vs. Stellar comparison.
- Conversely, if Stellar breaks out first while XRP struggles below $1.61, it might suggest that buyer interest is shifting toward Stellar’s focus on smaller transactions as we head into the fourth quarter.
- According to this widely held theory, when a pulsar enters a stream of ionized gas, it sweeps it into a thick, turbulent disk.
- Here we present evidence for the first, to our knowledge, extragalactic GC stellar stream, identified in deep Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging of the UDG UGC 9050-Dw1.
- The stream’s morphology, colour and apparent association with a compact source support the GC progenitor interpretation observationally and we reproduce the observed surface brightness with simulated GC stellar populations.
- Figure 1 shows observations of the UDG UGC 9050-Dw1 by the HST and the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), in which we highlight a feature resembling one arm of a stellar stream extending from a GC candidate.
- Stellar streams, which form when a host galaxy tidally strips stars from an orbiting stellar system, provide a powerful technique to constrain the dark matter content of external galaxies 6.
- Stellar streams from globular clusters (GCs) are particularly sensitive probes of dark matter halos and substructure 7, 8, 9, 10.
- He has lived up to the Baldwins' legacy of "pushing the envelope" from the very start as the first human ever born off Earth.