= Michiel van der Klis
{c}
{tag=Physicist}
{wiki}
<Michiel van der Klis> uses rapid <X-ray> variability to study compact accreting systems. With <Rudy Wijnands>, he discovered persistent 2.49-millisecond <X-ray> pulsations from an accreting <neutron star>, using the <Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer>.
Such a coherent pulse train provides a much more direct rotational clock than a broad or drifting variability peak. The 1998 discovery connected <accretion> in an <X-ray binary> with the proposed spinning-up of a <neutron star> into a millisecond <pulsar>, providing a missing observational link in that evolutionary picture.<Discovery of the first accretion-powered millisecond X-ray pulsar by Rudy Wijnands and Michiel van der Klis>[Abstract: persistent pulsations, observing instrument and connection to recycled radio pulsars]{ref}
\Image[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Redirect/file/Michiel%20van%20der%20Klis.jpg?width=250]
{title=Portrait of <Michiel van der Klis>}
{description=Schrijver; own work, 7 June 2004; uploaded by Schrijver~commonswiki. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/[CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.}
{source=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michiel_van_der_Klis.jpg}
{width=250}
Back to article page
