January 13, 2026

Gamma-ray orbital modulation in spider pulsars

Spider pulsars are known to exhibit orbital modulation of their flux across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from radio to X-rays. Over the past decade, gamma-ray orbital modulation (GOM) has been discovered in a handful of spiders, but its origin remains largely unknown. Because GOM is very subtle, its detection requires high photon statistics and precise…

COBIPLANE: The discovery of five new spider pulsars

Compact binary millisecond pulsars, also known as “spiders”, host the most massive neutron stars ever observed to date. Expanding the currently known spider population holds the key to determining the maximum neutron star mass, which has crucial implications for astrophysics, nuclear physics and gravitational wave astronomy. Searching for the variable optical emission of their companions can reveal a radio-obscured population of spiders. In the linked article, we present the results of our COmpact BInary Pulsar…