This figure presents an artist's impression of a new-born millisecond pulsar, seen in blue with two radiation beams, and its bloated red companion star. Scientists believe that the best explanation for seeing a bloated red star instead of a ``quiet" white dwarf in the system is that the pulsar only recently has been spun up by the gases transferred by the red star. It is the first time such a system has been observed. The insert shows the HST image of the globular cluster NGC 6397, where this system (indicated by an arrow) has been discovered (Courtesy of D'Amico, Ferraro, Possenti and Sabbi).
Involved people at OAB:
The evolution of stars and stellar systems is a very
active research field of the OAB since its foundation.
The interests range from evolution
of galaxies to galactic and extragalactic globular clusters systems, from
binaries to variable stars, from pulsars to LMXBs, covering the whole range of
astronomical wavelengths.
The present short description of the activity in the year 2001 has been organized in a few main sections to provide a very general overview: 1. The evolution of the Galaxy, 2. Globular clusters, 3. Nearby Galaxies, 4. RR Lyrae Variable stars, 5. Eclipsing binaries, 6. Planetary Nebulae, 7. Pulsars.
Centauri
from the Baade-Wesselink method
from 
analysis of RR Lyrae stars in
the bar of the LMC