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X-ray movies

Typical X-ray astronomical observations record 4-dimensional data, i.e., X-Y position, energy and arrival time of each photon. For example, this is an image of the AE Aquarii observed by Suzaku. UDON (Universe via DARTS ON-line) shows a pseudo-color image. With UDON, you can see light curves and energy spectra.

The AE Aquarii is found to be a white dwarf pulsar as shown here. The Pulse of X-rays is observed every 33 seconds, which is the rotation period of the AE Aquarii.

Let's see a movie of the pulsation. This is a time-lapse movie of AE Aquarii. Here, each photon is plotted in the X-Y coordinates and pseudo-colored corresponding to the energy. The data is folded according to the spin phase. The pulsation period in this movie is much faster than the real period (about 33 seconds) so you can see the variation well.

Here is another movie pulse_burst.mp4 featuring time variations of various neutron stars observed by Suzaku and ASCA.

Akira Miura, Takayuki Tamura (ISAS)
May, 2010