NICER and its view of neutron stars

Pacific
Speaker(s) Anna Watts (University of Amsterdam)
Video
Description

Please contact erule@berkeley.edu for zoom links.

NICER, the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer, is an X-ray telescope on the International Space Station. Its primary mission is to measure neutron star masses and radii, quantities that enable us to investigate the nature of the ultradense nuclear matter in the star’s cores. NICER exploits relativistic effects on X-rays emitted from the hot magnetic polar caps of millisecond pulsars, a technique that also lets us map the hot emitting regions on the stellar surface. I will present NICER’s latest results and discuss the implications for our understanding of ultradense matter and neutron star astrophysics.