Chandra Release - November 30, 2023

Visual Description: Spider Pulsars

This release features a composite image of a globular cluster, a sphere-shaped collection of stars bound together by gravity. In this conglomeration are eleven spider pulsars, which obliterate their companion stars with strong winds of particles.

In the main image of this release, scores of tiny white stars dot the blackness of space, many appearing to glow with a white or hot pink aura. Like other globular clusters, this conglomeration, named Omega Centauri, is more densely packed near the center. 
 
A close up image of this densely-packed center reveals even more stars, blanketing the frame from corner to corner. This close up is presented fully labeled, with a white ring encircling nine of the eleven marked spider pulsars.

Each spider pulsar is the spinning core of a collapsed massive star. As they spin, the spider pulsars emit beams of radiation, like light from a lighthouse. The pulsars also produce winds of particles that methodically strip away their companion stars, layer by layer.