The temporary disappearance of radio emission from a pulsar is known as.nulling. The nature of nulling is not fully understood yet, but it isconsidered as evidence of turning off the magnetospheric activity. A changedmagnetospheric activity can affect the pulsar.s X-ray emission too, inparticular if these changes persist for some time. Nulling pulsars are usuallytoo faint in X-rays to detect emission disappearance in the typically shortnulling intervals. The nearby isolated PSR B1706-16 shows sufficiently longnulling intervals and may be X-ray bright enough to explore the nullingphenomenon in X-rays for the first time. The proposed short observations willestablish the X-ray properties needed for planning a longer follow-up observation.
Instrument
EMOS1, EMOS2, EPN, OM, RGS1, RGS2
Temporal Coverage
2022-03-03T07:56:56Z/2022-03-26T21:37:52Z
Version
19.17_20220121_1250
Mission Description
The European Space Agencys (ESA) X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission (XMM-Newton) was launched by an Ariane 504 on December 10th 1999. XMM-Newton is ESAs second cornerstone of the Horizon 2000 Science Programme. It carries 3 high throughput X-ray telescopes with an unprecedented effective area, and an optical monitor, the first flown on a X-ray observatory. The large collecting area and ability to make long uninterrupted exposures provide highly sensitive observations. Since Earths atmosphere blocks out all X-rays, only a telescope in space can detect and study celestial X-ray sources. The XMM-Newton mission is helping scientists to solve a number of cosmic mysteries, ranging from the enigmatic black holes to the origins of the Universe itself. Observing time on XMM-Newton is being made available to the scientific community, applying for observational periods on a competitive basis.
European Space Agency, Dr George Pavlov, 2023, 'First step in searching for pulsar nulling in X-rays', 19.17_20220121_1250, European Space Agency, https://doi.org/10.57780/esa-w506p78
