Arachnid astrometry: Charting the distances to celestial spiders with Gaia

Compact binary millisecond pulsars are captivating celestial objects comprised of fast-spinning neutron stars orbiting closely with lighter companion stars. Neutron stars are ultra-dense remnants of massive stars resulting from supernova explosions at the culmination of their lifecycles. These binary pulsars exhibit distinct behaviors due to intense gravitational interactions between the stars. Pulsars emit particle “winds”…