1. What is a white dwarf?
A white dwarf is the hot, compact corpses of low-mass stars, typically with a mass similar to that of the Sun compressed to a volume the size of Earth.
2. What can happen to a white dwarf in a close binary system?
A white dwarf in a close binary system can gradually gain mass if its companion is a main-sequence or giant star. Also, in a close binary system, gas from a companion star can spill toward a white dwarf, forming a swirling accretion disk around it.
3. What is a neutron star?
A neutron star is a ball of neutrons just a few kilometers in radius but with a mass like that of the Sun.
4. How were neutron stars discovered?
Neutron stars can spin rapidly and emit beams of radiation along their magnetic poles, which we detect as pulses of radiation if the beams sweep by Earth.
5. What can happen to a neutron star in a close binary system?
They can brilliantly burst back to life, can create a hot, swirling accretion disk around the neutron star, but much hotter and denser than an accretion disk around a white dwarf. X-ray binaries.
6. Who was Jocelyn Bell?
Jocelyn Bell discovered a rapidly rotating neutron star. She served two years as the President of the Institute of Physics and is currently a visiting professor of astrophysics at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Mansfield College.
7. Does she have a Nobel Prize?
No, Jocelyn Bell did not receive a Nobel Prize.
8. What were called then little green men?
She discovered a bit of "scruff" on her chart-recorder papers that tracked across the sky with the stars. The signal was pulsing with great regularity and temporarily dubbed it the Little Green Men 1.
9. Who was her thesis adviser?
Her thesis adviser was Antony Hewish.
10. Did the thesis adviser get a Nobel Prize?
Yes, Antony Hewish did receive a Nobel Prize.
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