Related papers: Pulsar Astronomy: the HST Contribution

Given their intrinsic faintness, isolated neutron stars represent an elusive target for optical astronomy. Up to date, an optical counterpart has been identified only for a very tiny fraction of the overall population of more than 1000…

New results of HST and VLT observations of isolated pulsars and their environments are presented. We present the first deep optical observations of the nearby pulsar PSR J0108-1431, the identification evidence of PSR 1929+10 based on the…

While isolated neutron stars (INSs) are among the brightest gamma-ray sources, they are among the faintest ones in the optical, and their study is a challenging task which require the most powerful telescopes. HST has lead neutron star…

Since its launch in 1990, HST has played a leading role in optical studies of isolated neutron stars, both radio-loud pulsars and radio-silent ones, paving the way to follow-up observations performed with 8m-class telescopes, like the VLT,…

The quest for the distance of the Vela and Geminga pulsars yielded, so far, a set of four WFPC2 images for each object. The availability of couples of images taken at the same period of the year, thus affected by the same parallactic…

The state of the art of optical studies of Isolated Neutron Stars (INSs) and their Pulsar Wind Nebulae (PWNe) is reviewed. In addition, results obtained from recent HST and VLT observations are presented and discussed.

So far, 24 Isolated neutron stars (INSs) of different types have been identified at optical wavelengths, from the classical radio pulsars to more peculiar objects, like the magnetars. Most identifications have been obtained in the last 20…

We present the results of deep, high-resolution, multi-band optical observations of the field of the young (~ 5,000 yrs) 16 ms X-ray pulsar PSR J0537$-$6910 performed with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard the Hubble Space…

In the last years, optical studies of Isolated Neutron Stars (INSs) have expanded from the more classical rotation-powered ones to other categories, like the Anomalous X-ray Pulsars (AXPs) and the Soft Gamma-ray Repeaters (SGRs), which make…

Fields of Geminga, PSR B0950+08, PSR J1908+0734 and PSR J0108-1431 have been observed within the program of optical investigation of nearby neutron stars carried out with the 6m telescope. Our multicolour BVR_cI_c photometry has yielded the…

We report the first successful measurement (with HST/WFPC2) of a significant proper motion for a V~ 25 object which we had proposed as the optical counterpart of the radio pulsar PSR B0656+14. The yearly displacement of 43+/- 2 mas is…

Isolated Neutron Stars (INSs) were the first sources identified in the field of high-energy gamma-ray astronomy. At first, in the 70s, there were only two identified sources, the Crab and Vela pulsars. However, although few in number, these…

Almost 30 Isolated Neutron Stars (INSs) of different flavours have been identified at optical, ultraviolet, or infrared (UVOIR) wavelengths. Here, I present a short review of the historical background and describe the scientific impact of…

We present observations of fields containing eight recently discovered binary millisecond pulsars using the telescopes at MDM Observatory. Optical counterparts to four of these systems are detected, one of which, PSR J2214+3000, is a novel…

Being fast rotating objects, Isolated Neutron Stars (INSs) are natural targets for high-time resolution observations across the whole electromagnetic spectrum. With the number of objects detected at optical (plus ultraviolet and infrared)…

We present the UV spectroscopy and timing of three nearby pulsars (Vela, B0656+14 and Geminga) recently observed with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. We also review the optical and X-ray properties of these pulsars and establish…

The study of the younger, and brighter, pulsars is important to understand the optical emission properties of isolated neutron stars. PSRB0540-69, the second brightest (V~22) optical pulsar, is obviously a very interesting target for these…

Forty years passed since the optical identification of the first isolated neutron star (INS), the Crab pulsar. 25 INSs have been now identified in the optical (O), near-ultraviolet (nUV), or near-infrared (nIR), hereafter UVOIR, including…

Thanks to its sharp view, HST has significantly improved our knowledge of tens of gravitationally lensed quasars in four different respects: (1) confirming their lensed nature; (2) detecting the lensing galaxy responsible for the image…

We report on the proper motion measurement of the proposed optical counterpart of the X-ray/radio pulsar PSR 1929+10. Using images obtained with the HST/STIS (average epoch 2001.73) we computed a yearly displacement of +97 +/- 1 mas yr^{-1}…