Donor Star Breathes Life into Zombie Companion

Red giant and neutron star interaction Credit: ESA

Red giant and neutron star interaction Credit: ESA

The European Space Agency’s Integral Space Observatory has witnessed a slow-rotating neutron star feeding on material from a neighboring red giant.  Winds from the red giant “revived” the neutron star and emitted X-rays, which were detected by Integral. There are only 10 of these symbiotic X-ray binary systems known.

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