NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Collections About News Help Login
Back to Results
Broad-Band Measurements of Cen X-3 With XTE and CGROCentaurus X-3 has played a key role in the development of our understanding of galactic x-ray binary sources. Timing analysis of the UHURU x-ray observations for the luminous Cen X-3 source (L approximately 10(exp 38) erg/s) revealed the first evidence for coherent x-ray pulsations from an object in a binary system (Giaconni 1971; Schreier 1972). It was quickly understood that the luminous pulsed x-ray emission could be generated by the accretion of matter from a companion star onto a rotating neutron star and led to the adoption of binary star models as the fundamental model for galactic x-ray sources (e.g. Pringle and Rees 1972; Lamb 1973). Based on modeling and refined observations since the original measurements, we now believe that Cen X-3 is a high mass x-ray binary system that contains a disk-fed pulsar with a period of 4.84 seconds that is in a 2.087 day orbit around an O-star companion. Since the pulsar discovery, its period has been intermittently monitored and those studies show a long term spin-up of the pulsar punctuated by short intervals of spin-down (e.g. Finger 1994). The implied torques are thought to originate from the interaction of an accretion disk with the magnetic field of a neutron star (Ghosh and Lamb 1979).
Document ID
19990078756
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Other
Authors
Vestrand, W. Thomas (New Hampshire Univ. Durham, NH United States)
Date Acquired
September 6, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1999
Subject Category
Space Radiation
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAG5-7118
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

Related Records

There are no records associated with this record.
No Preview Available