Chandra Release - July 22, 2015

Visual Description: PSR B1259-63

The four-panel image reveals the dramatic interaction between a massive star and its dense stellar companion. In the top panel, an artist's impression shows the double star system: on the right, a bright, blue-white star about 30 times the Sun's mass is surrounded by a glowing disk of material, while a small, dense pulsar on the left streaks through on its elongated orbit. The pulsar has just smashed through the disk, blasting away a huge clump of fluffy red material that now extends into space. The lower panels, images from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory from 2011, 2013, and 2014, display the aftermath in real data: diffuse X-ray light puffs outward in patches of bright blue with white cores. Together, the sequence connects the dynamic artwork with observational evidence, showing how a neutron star's collision can sling vast amounts of matter across the cosmos.