Astronomers find rare triple-star system with a 3.2-millisecond pulsar

The data confirmed the white-dwarf companion and detected gamma-ray emission associated with the pulsar. More significantly, they uncovered a second companion: a subgiant star with a mass roughly comparable to that of the Sun. Image Courtesy: AAS Nova/Kerry Hensley; background image from Thilina Alagiyawanna Some stars live fast, some burn quietly for billions of years, and a rare few find themselves locked in cosmic arrangements that challenge the usual rules of stellar evolution. Astronomers have now identified one such system: a rapidly spinning pulsar accompanied by a white dwarf and a Sun-like subgiant star. The discovery makes PSR J0435+3233 one of only a small number of known millisecond pulsars residing in a triple-star system, states an online report by the American Astronomical Society (AAS) NOVA.A pulsar spinning at extraordinary speedAccording to the report, PSR J0435+3233 was discovered earlier this year using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). It belongs to the millisecond pulsar family, completing a rotation in just 3.2 milliseconds. What immediately set it apart, however, was not simply its speed but how rapidly that spin is slowing.Th...