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This artist impression shows the pulsar PSR J1023+0038 stealing gas from its companion star. This gas accumulates in the disk around the pulsar, slowly falls into it and is eventually ejected in a narrow jet. In addition, there is a wind of particles blowing from the pulsar, represented in the figure by a cloud of very small dots. This wind collides with the gas falling in, heating it and causing the system to glow brightly in X-rays, UV and visible light. Eventually clumps of this hot gas are ejected with the jet, and the pulsar returns to its initial, weaker state, and repeats the cycle. This pulsar has been observed to continuously switch between these two states every few seconds or minutes. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

Cosmic Shells: Solving the Mystery of Strange Pulsar Brightness Changes

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Astronomers have deciphered the strange behavior of the pulsar J1023+0038. This pulsar, which rapidly transitions between two brightness states, emits material in sudden bursts that cause these transitions. Thanks to this breakthrough, which included observations and analyses
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