Texas Tech Astronomer’s Work Featured in TIME

A Texas Tech astronomer’s research on neutron stars has been named one of the best space photos of the year by TIME Magazine.

Paul Sell is a postdoctoral research fellow in astrophysics and teaches astronomy for the university. Sell has been researching a binary system where a neutron star is playing parasite to its twin and slowly consuming the fuel of the other star.

The specific photo TIME chose shows X-rays created from the binary system Circinus X-1.

“This is and image made from observations with very different telescopes that help tell a more complete story and show all three main features we have discovered,” said Sell.

Sell said they are interested to see what happens when the feeder star dies and that most star systems are binary, unlike our system.