The massive pulsar in the binary system PSR J2215+5135, illustrated in the Figure, heats up the inner face of its companion star. Credit: Gabriel Pérez, SMM (IAC).
Using a pioneering method, researchers have found a neutron star of about 2.3 Solar masses – one of the most massive ever detected. Neutron stars (often called pulsars) are stellar remnants that have reached the end of their evolutionary life: they result from the death of a star of between 10 and 30 Solar masses. Despite their small size (about 20 km in diameter), neutron stars have more mass than the Sun, so they are extremely dense.
Researchers from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics (IAC) used an innovative method to measure the mass of one of the heaviest neutron...
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