Andromeda's pulsing neutron star
Date: 31 March 2016
Satellite: XMM-Newton
Copyright: Andromeda: ESA/Herschel/PACS/SPIRE/J. Fritz, U. Gent/XMM-Newton/EPIC/W. Pietsch, MPE; data: P. Esposito et al. (2016)
Andromeda, or M31, is a spiral galaxy similar to our own Milky Way. For the first time, a spinning neutron star has been inferred in XMM-Newton data.
Inset: Light curve of the source, known as 3XMM J004301.4+413017, as analysed by XMM-Newton's European Photon Imaging Camera, EPIC. The source has a period of 1.2 seconds, consistent with a spinning neutron star.
Last Update: 1 September 2019
