Direct spectroscopic observation of matter falling onto a compact stellar object.

Authors

Roi Rahin, Ralf Ballhausen, Nazma Islam, Maurice A Leutenegger, Ehud Behar, Daisy Zamora, Joel Coley, Natalie Hell, Tim Kallman, Maximilian Lorenz, Pragati Pradhan, Joern Wilms, Aafia Zainab

Published in

Science advances. Volume 12. Issue 38. Pages eaef6686. Sep 18, 2026. Epub Sep 18, 2026.

Abstract

GX 301-2 is an accreting x-ray pulsar with a massive hypergiant companion WRAY 977, embedded within a dense circumstellar environment. We report on detected redshifted hydrogen- and helium-like iron lines, together with transitions from lower ionization states, observed with XRISM/Resolve during an x-ray flare. Notably, these spectral features evolve from absorption lines at the beginning of the observation to emission lines at the end, with intervening phases exhibiting a mixture of both absorption and emission features. This behavior constitutes direct evidence of inflowing material accreting onto the neutron star. The results suggest a dynamic accretion geometry, evolving from predominantly radial inflow to a transverse, potentially disk-like configuration during the x-ray flare. Observations of inflowing matter thus constitute a direct test of accretion hypotheses and highlight the complex interplay between stellar wind and transient accretion disks in wind-accreting systems.

PMID:
42758836
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 19 Sep 2026.

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