Questions tagged [pulsar]

Questions regarding neutron stars which emit regular pulses of electromagnetic radiation.

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
5 votes
1 answer
557 views

How bright is the Crab Pulsar's 30 Hz modulation in visible light? What color is it?

This answer to Has great eyesight been necessary for astronomers? mentions Astronomer Jocelyn Bell Burnell's recounting of a likely first visual observation of a pulsar. This can be found for example ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 31.1k
15 votes
2 answers
8k views

What causes a neutron star to become a pulsar?

Leading on from this pulsar question, what criteria/processes make neutron stars become pulsars, do all neutron stars become pulsars?
SteB's user avatar
  • 597
27 votes
2 answers
2k views

What causes a star to become a pulsar?

What processes does a star undergo to become a pulsar? Does it take a very specific star with a certain set of qualities such as "Just the right mass, diameter, and composition," or is it a freak ...
David Freitag's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
289 views

How did the Hulse-Taylor Pulsar Provide Confirming Evidence of General Relativity?

What measurements and observations of the Hulse-Taylor Pulsar agreed precisely with the predictions of general relativity, and how did these measurements support the theory?
Frank's user avatar
  • 153
21 votes
1 answer
585 views

Can we detect pulsars that aren't "pointed" towards us?

A pulsar is a highly magnetized rotating neutron star that emits beams of radiation through its magnetic poles, in the direction of the Earth. This makes it seem to pulse, as seen from Earth. There ...
usernumber's user avatar
  • 17.5k
16 votes
2 answers
1k views

Are there neutron stars whose magnetic axis and rotating axis are the same, and if so what will happen?

I know that there's probably a higher chance of having a neutron star that has its magnetic axis inclined to the rotational axis rather than having it perfectly aligned. If they are not aligned, the ...
space nerd's user avatar
16 votes
3 answers
2k views

What is the probability of seeing a neutron star as a pulsar?

Pulsars are neutron stars that emit a beam of electromagnetic radiation that is not aligned with its rotation axis. If the Earth passes through that beam of radiation, we see a pulsar. Pulsars are ...
usernumber's user avatar
  • 17.5k
11 votes
1 answer
1k views

How can I hear (or at least detect) a pulsar at home?

Scott Manley's video Using Relativistic Raytracing &X-Rays To See Detail on Surface Of Neutron Star talks about X-ray measurements using the NICER X-ray telescope attached to the International ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 31.1k
7 votes
1 answer
388 views

Is there any well-populated list or database of pulsar "glitches"?

Besides listing which pulsars have ever actually glitched, it would hopefully also include some historical data on their periods before and after they glitched.
bigjosh's user avatar
  • 173
7 votes
1 answer
273 views

What is a typical polar angle of a pulsar beam?

I've found many articles on the geometry of pulsar beams, but I have not been able to find what would be a typical angle for the beam cone. Illustrations I've found seem to look like it might be 1 or ...
Jeff Wolski's user avatar
6 votes
3 answers
288 views

Can't pulsars and stars be used for gravitational wave measurement?

Suppose that we collected photons from a distant star, and they arrive regularly at 15 photons every microsecond onto a CCD, when a gravity wave bends space time, wouldn't the regular 15 photons graph ...
bandybabboon's user avatar
  • 4,252
6 votes
1 answer
146 views

What are the main ways that pulsar "glitches" are noticed and documented? Do they have to be caught in the act of glitching to be catalogued?

This answer to Is there any well-populated list or database of pulsar "glitches"? mentions two large databases; (Jodrell Bank and ATNF's pulsar catalog) but neither question nor answer ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 31.1k
5 votes
1 answer
508 views

Is "magnetars don't last long — just a year to a few years" really true? Is it a misquote or perhaps taken out of context?

NASA's Two Sides of the Same Star discusses the relationship between pulsars and magnetars and contains a video also linked below. At 02:13 it quotes "Tom ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 31.1k
3 votes
2 answers
498 views

How to find period of a pulsar from a given time sampled voltage data?

I've a data file with 2 columns, each containing time sampled voltage output (a sequence of real numbers) from a radio telescope, so there is a pair of telescope which are measuring the signal here. ...
apooravc's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
184 views

Is the smaller companion of Pulsar J0453+1559 still the smallest known neutron star? Was it further confirmed to be a NS after Martinez et al. (2015)?

@ProfRob's Physics SE answer to What is the theoretical lower mass limit for a gravitationally stable neutron star? was linked just now in their answer to Can a neutron star ever be less than about 1....
uhoh's user avatar
  • 31.1k