These disks have a metallicity equal to or above the Galactic average, and are thus dust-rich. Neutron stars are created in supernova explosions and begin their lives surrounded by a fallback disk with a mass of order 0.1 to 0.2 M ⊙ ( Fryer & Heger 2000), giving a disk-to-primary mass ratio similar to protoplanetary disks close to gravitational instability. Key words: astrobiology / planets and satellites: atmospheres / stars: neutron / pulsars: individual: PSR B1257+12 Depending on as-yet poorly constrained aspects of the pulsar wind, both Super-Earths around B1257+12 could lie within its habitable zone.
We discuss the survival time of planet atmospheres and the planetary surface conditions around different classes of neutron stars, and define a neutron star habitable zone based on the presence of liquid water and retention of an atmosphere. We consider the environment and physical processes relevant to neutron star planets, in particular the effect of X-ray irradiation and the relativistic pulsar wind on the planetary atmosphere. New evidence indicates that observational biases could still hide a wide variety of planetary systems around most neutron stars. The most famous of these are the low-mass planets around the millisecond pulsar B1257+12. Of the roughly 3000 neutron stars known, only a handful have sub-stellar companions. Astronomical objects: linking to databasesġ Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, Neils BohrCA Leiden, The NetherlandsĮ-mail: ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, PostAA Dwingeloo, The Netherlandsģ Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK.Including author names using non-Roman alphabets.Suggested resources for more tips on language editing in the sciences Punctuation and style concerns regarding equations, figures, tables, and footnotes