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Animations

Animations

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Gravity Wave Animation

Two galaxies, each containing a black hole at their centre, merge. The two back holes orbit one another at the centre of the merged galaxy, sending out gravity waves as they perturb spacetime in their vicinity. These gravity waves eventually reach our Galaxy, the Milky Way, where they modulate the signals from pulsars. The apparent pulsar period is alternately red-shifted and blue-shifted as the wave passes over the pulsar and the Earth.

• WEB (MPEG 11MB)
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Credit: John Rowe Animation/Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO

Binary Pulsar Animation

Pulsar J0737-3039 and its neutron-star companion. The system is emitting gravity waves, shown here as ripples in a spacetime grid.

• WEB (MPEG 3MB)
• PAL (MPEG 21MB)

Credit: John Rowe Animation/Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO

Formation of the Double Pulsar System

The first-formed pulsar is 'spun up' to become a rapidly rotating 'millisecond pulsar' by matter accreting from its red giant companion.

Evolution animation: How the double pulsar system formed. The double pulsar probably formed from a pair of massive stars orbiting each other. (This animation does not show the orbital motion.) The more massive star ended its life first, swelling to become a red giant and then exploding as a supernova, its core forming a pulsar. The second star entered the red giant phase later: when it did, matter from this star was transferred onto its pulsar companion, spinning that up to become a fast-rotating "millisecond" pulsar. The red giant then went supernova, forming the second, slower, pulsar.

• WEB (MPEG 5MB)
• PAL (MPEG 29MB)

Credit: John Rowe Animation/Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO

Current State of the Double Pulsar System

The double pulsar system (not to scale).

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• WEB (MPEG 5MB)
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Credit: John Rowe Animation/Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO